Perry: Change must come from outside DC

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, possible GOP presidential candidates, courted conservatives Thursday in Washington by presenting themselves as chief executives with a vision.

Perry, the evening keynoter at the annual meeting of the American Principles Project, a conservative group, touted his experience in creating jobs in Texas, “the 13th largest economy in the world.”

But he told the enthusiastic crowd that it was not enough to be against the current administration.

“We must articulate what we are for,” said Perry. “And in that respect, as we look to 2016, we must remember we are not electing a critic-in-chief, we are electing a commander-in-chief.”

Perry said expanding energy production, reforming the tax code, reducing regulations, and providing an educated workforce were central to boosting the economy.

“Americans have become cynical that Washington can ever change,” said Perry. “And I am skeptical that an agent of change can come from Washington.”

Jindal used a luncheon speech to criticize Common Core, a set of educational standards that many conservatives have attacked as excessive regulation of local policy.

“Local parents, local teachers, local leaders need to make these decisions,” Jindal said at the luncheon. “In our entire history as a country, we’ve never allowed the federal government to make these decisions for us. Now is not the time to start.”

Jindal was an early supporter of the Common Core standards – new academic benchmarks adopted by most U.S. states – praising them as a way to “raise expectations for every child.” But his enthusiasm evaporated as Common Core became a prominent target for tea party groups and other conservative Republicans.

Both Republicans, who emphasized their track records as chief executives of their states, are looking at the 2016 race. Perry, in particular, is getting into campaign mode, trying to gain some momentum after the entry of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as a potential contender.

Earlier on Thursday, Perry named 83 high-profile donors, many from Texas, to the advisory board of RickPAC, his political action committee. He’s heading to New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state, next week for a two-day swing.

Naming the donors was a way of signaling his potential fundraising prowess, at a time when Bush and others are wooing donors across the country and Perry is fighting an indictment at a crucial point in his campaign preparation.

Perry, who retired as governor in January after 14 years in office, lost a bid last week to have the two-count felony indictment against him dismissed. He was charged in August with abusing his office and coercing a public servant after he threatened to cut off funding for the Travis County public corruption unit if the district attorney in charge didn’t resign after being arrested for drunken driving. She refused to resign, and the governor vetoed the funding.

Perry is fighting the charges, saying they’re politically motivated.

“He’s under indictment, and that’s going to make it much more challenging for him to establish credibility,” said Bruce Buchanan, a presidential expert at the University of Texas, Austin. “It complicates a presidential candidacy.”

This story was originally published February 5, 2015 at 9:40 PM with the headline "Perry: Change must come from outside DC."