Democratic Texas gubernatorial nominee Bill White, who is white, was speaking to a group of African-American leaders yesterday, and said that though he wants to serve the people of Texas, his Republican opponent Gov. Rick Perry wants to be “treated as master.”
“I’m here on a job interview,” said White, according to the Dallas Morning News. “We need a governor who’s a servant, as opposed to Rick Perry, who wants to be treated as master.”
According to White campaign spokesman Katy Bacon, this is not the first occurrence of this theme in his speeches:
“Servant leadership is a deeply held value of Bill White. People of all backgrounds and all parts of Texas agree that we need a governor who’s in it for Texas, instead of Rick Perry, who’s in it for himself. Bill’s talked about servant leadership everywhere from the Kingwood Tea Party to the Texas Farm Bureau to the Democratic Convention.
Though White has had more fundraising success than Perry in the campaign, the TPM Poll Average shows Perry holding a steady lead against White 47.4%-40.9%.
Late Update: White spokesperson Katy Bacon re-iterated to TPM that White has made comments like this many, many times in the past. When asked about the optics of making such a comment in front of a black audience, she said, “Down here in Texas, people have seen 25 years of Rick Perry and his abuse.”
