Gov. Sam Brownback bringing Texas Gov. Rick Perry to Wichita

Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be in Wichita next week to raise money for Gov. Sam Brownback’s re-election campaign.

A $500 to $4,000 per person reception will be held at the office of Fidelity Bank at 220 S. Main, the building that formerly housed the Carnegie Library, according to an invitation on Brownback’s re-election website.

Brownback and Perry are longtime friends, and Brownback was a strong supporter of Perry’s unsuccessful campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination for president.

Perry’s appearance on Brownback’s behalf will come less than three weeks after Brownback’s opponent, House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, raised a recent grand jury indictment of Perry as an issue during the gubernatorial debate at the Kansas State Fair.

After Brownback repeatedly sought to tie Davis to President Obama, Davis played the Perry card, saying: “If you want to make this election about who I supported for president, you might take a look at your last selection for president. He’s under indictment right now in Texas.”

An Austin grand jury has charged Perry with two counts of violating Texas public-integrity law. The indictment alleges Perry improperly sought to influence Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg to resign her position after she was convicted and served jail time for driving under the influence.

It also charges that Perry abused his authority as governor when he threatened to, and ultimately did, veto funding for the state’s Public Integrity Unit, which investigates and prosecutes alleged misconduct of government officials. The state capital of Austin is in Travis County and the district attorney there oversees the integrity unit.

If Lehmberg had resigned, Perry, as governor, would have appointed her successor.

Perry and his supporters have characterized the indictment as political and said his actions were within his authority as governor. His lawyers have filed court papers seeking to have the indictment dismissed on grounds that the law is unconstitutionally vague, that prosecution would violate legislative immunity and that courts cannot limit a governor’s authority to veto spending measures.

Bob Beatty, a professor of political science at Washburn University in Topeka, said he thinks it’s a “good idea” for Brownback to bring Perry to Kansas to campaign for him.

Perry was a presidential frontrunner in the 2012 Republican primary season, but his campaign imploded after a nationally televised debate in which he said he would abolish three cabinet departments but could only remember two of them.

But since then, “He’s sort of mounted a bit of a comeback, in a sense, among Republicans and his star is rising again among Republicans,” Beatty said. “You notice I said among Republicans.

“Part of the Brownback campaign is to get his voters: A) to donate money, but B) also to get them motivated and Perry can help do that,” he said.

Beatty said Brownback has lost some support among moderate Republicans and needs to energize his conservative base to make up for it.

“He wants some of them (moderates) back,” Beatty said. “But he’s also going to acknowledge, ‘You know what, I’m not going to get all of them back. But what I can do is ... double down on conservatives, let’s get them to the polls.’”

Ken Ciboski, a professor of political science at Wichita State University, was at a Friday meeting of the Pachyderm Club where the upcoming Perry fundraiser was announced.

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Ciboski, who is active in Republican politics. “Brownback needs all the help he can get, if you believe the polls we’re seeing.”

He said he had noticed the close relationship between the two governors back in 2012 and that they have exhibited similar governing styles. “I think you could call Rick Perry and Sam Brownback political soul mates,” Ciboski said.

Ciboski also said that he didn’t think the indictment issue will make much of a difference for Brownback voters. He said about two weeks ago, Perry fired up the crowd at a Dallas summit sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political organization with ties to Wichita’s Koch Industries and its owners.

“I have questions about him (Perry), but he’s a formidable political force,” Ciboski said.

This story was originally published September 15, 2014 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Gov. Sam Brownback bringing Texas Gov. Rick Perry to Wichita."