Saturday, September 05, 2009

perry corpus christi connection yet again is pressure cooking and burning the meat

"i'M WAITING" AS spoken by Sonic The Hedgehog



Home › News › Local News
Regent: I was pressured to resign
Perry appointee endorsed rival for Texas governor

APRIL CASTRO Associated Press
Friday, September 4, 2009

STORY TOOLS

* E-mail story
* Comments
* iPod friendly
* Printer friendly

Buzz this story

* Buzz up!

Find this story interesting? If so, please click "Buzz up" to share it with others on Yahoo! Buzz.
related linksMore Local News

* HOMESTEAD: A cowboy's life was too good to pass up
* They've got it in the bag
* Ministry hosts Christian-based rock concert

related linksSocial Bookmarking


AUSTIN — Texas Tech regent Mark Griffin said Friday he was pressured to resign his governor-appointed seat after he endorsed Gov. Rick Perry’s rival, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, in the governor’s race.

Griffin, who made a recent public appearance endorsing Hutchison, told The Associated Press that Perry’s former chief of staff, Brian Newby, called him days later with the message: “The governor expects loyalty out of his appointees.”

Griffin said he asked Newby if the governor wanted him to resign, and Newby said yes. Griffin said Newby told him, “The governor’s not going to ask you himself” but Griffin says he got the impression that his resignation was in the best interest of the university.

Hutchison is challenging Perry in the March 2010 Republican primary. Perry is seeking his third full term as governor.

Newby did not immediately return a phone message Friday seeking comment.

But a spokeswoman for Perry, Allison Castle, said Perry’s office had nothing to do with Griffin’s resignation.

“The governor appreciates Mr. Griffin’s service to Texas Tech and the state of Texas. Our office has not had any contact with Mr. Griffin regarding his resignation (other than Griffin’s resignation letter and Perry’s acceptance letter). The governor will name a replacement, but no decision has been made,” Castle wrote.

“I felt like staying on would put the institution at risk, and I’m not willing to put the university at risk,” Griffin said.

Perry appointed Griffin, a Lubbock businessman, to the board in 2005. Griffin said he agreed to back Hutchison about two years ago, before he knew Perry would seek re-election. But he withheld a public endorsement until after the legislative session ended in June so his political activity wouldn’t harm legislation and funding for Texas Tech.

At the Aug. 20 rally in Lubbock, Griffin introduced Hutchison as “a lady who can transcend politics by strong, effective, principled leadership of the state of Texas,” according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, which first reported Griffin’s resignation.

Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sedosky released a statement saying the campaign was “shocked and dismayed to hear that Perry is yet again playing politics with Texas’ universities.”

In an Aug. 28 letter to Griffin, Perry accepted Griffin’s resignation on Aug. 28 and thanked him for his service.

Newby, who was on Perry’s staff since 2004, rose from general counsel to chief of staff, a position he served in for about 16 months, before leaving last year. Newby, now practicing law in Fort Worth, also was a Texas Tech regent from 1999 through 2004.

In February, Hutchison suggested political retribution was behind a dispute between Perry and then-University of Texas regent Robert Rowling that led to Rowling’s abrupt resignation from the UT System board.

Rowling, a Perry appointee, headed a fundraising arm of Hutchison’s campaign for governor.

Hutchison called the dispute a “setup” and “partly a payback” by Perry. Perry’s office denied there was any political motivation.

There are 1 responses to this story. Click here to join the conversation

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned.

Click here for our full user agreement.
1 Comment (hide comments)
You must follow these rules in order to post comments:

1. Keep it on topic. Comments that are obscene, vulgar, lewd or sexually-oriented will be removed. Creative spelling of such terms also will be filtered out and banned.
2. Do not threaten to hurt or kill anyone. Not only is this illegal, but violates our user agreement.
3. Be truthful. Don't lie about anyone or anything. Exposing untruthful things is not what comments are about.
4. Be nice. No racism, sexism or any other sort of -ism that degrades another person.
5. Keep it local. Do not post direct links to sites outside of gosanangelo.com.
6. Police yourselves. Hit the "Suggest Removal" button on offensive comments. We, in turn, will take a look at your issue with a particular comment and remove it if it violates our user agreement.
7. Share what you know. Give us your eyewitness accounts, background, observations and history. You are our eyes and ears in the Concho Valley.
8. Ask questions. What more do you want to know about the story? We can then forward your question to the appropriate person and have them give you a response.
9. Help us get it right. If you find a factual error or misspelling within one of our stories, email webmaster@gosanangelo.com before slamming the writer and newspaper.
10. Gosanangelo.com reserves the right to suspend the comments function without prior notification, including but not limited to: repeated violations of the user agreement, conversations straying off topic, and/or protection of minors.

By following these simple rules, we can keep comments alive and allow you, our residents and loyal readers, the privilege of being able to voice opinions on local issues.

Click here for our full user agreement.

Posted by Shorebreak on September 4, 2009 at 8:45 p.m.

* Reply to this post
* (Suggest removal)

Perry, the thug that he is, doesn't hesitate to stifle his appointee's personal political preferences. Thank you for your fine service to Tech Regent Griffin.


Post your comment
(Requires free registration.)

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.

Username:

Password:
(Forgot your password?)

Your Turn:

No comments: