Anita Perry in Context

For most of her husband's administration, Anita Perry has been a cypher. That was true on the campaign trail too, until her recent rantings about her unemployed son. What makes it weird is that the governor's wife is actually a seasoned backroom political pro.

Anita Perry pulled a full-blown "Let them eat cake" moment last week when she told an unemployed man that she shared his pain: After all, pesky conflict-of-interest regulations passed by those damnable Demenycrats had forced her son Griffin to leave his job at Deutsche Bank while he works on his father's presidential efforts. Yes, because voluntarily quitting your job as a financial executive to latch on to daddy's campaign staff is exactly as being fired.

More cake, please.

This came after she leaped to her husband's defense, claiming that other GOP candidates were attacking him because he is the most Christian and most conservative candidate in the race (irony of ironies: This came after the Bloomberg News debate in which most of his rivals ignored Perry: After all, why attack road kill?)

What makes this hyperbole so out of character is that Anita Perry is no political ingenue (and not just because of her husband's career.) While much is made of the fact that she is a registered nurse, for the last two decades her real contribution to the family coffers has been as a PR professional. She left medicine in the early 1990s to join MEM Hubble Communications Inc., the firm that would go on to become part of GOP-friendly PR powerhouse Hillco Partners. After that, she moved over to the Perryman Group, where she served as director of client services for the financial and economic analysis firm.

Since 2003, Anita Perry has been director of outreach and development at the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault since 2003 – a period which has seen the state's rape program funding stagnate. However, TAASA has made much of her skills in fundraising and networking (plus being the governor's wife may not hurt, especially around veto season.) Back in 2000, a Democratic strategist told us that, while "Anita Perry is no Hillary Clinton," she is "the brains of the outfit" when it comes to Perry Politics Inc.

Put that into the current context. Gov. Perry has been shown to be completely out of his league on the presidential trail: A sub-par debater, a low-level stumper with poor message discipline, and a man who should not be let loose around children and camera crews. All of which raises the question: Who exactly convinced him to run? The Washington Post has collated heavy evidence that it was Anita who got the fires running. After all, the early Perry campaign was in such slow motion that key players like number cruncher Dave Carney were working on Newt Gingrich's campaign.

This may not be the first time that Anita has driven some of Rick's more ostentatious ambitions. Quick reminder: The Perrys had moved out of the governor's mansion well before the 2008 fire. Part of the reason for the delay in reconstruction was the conflagration, but the larger issue the extra work beyond a simple restoration. Anita Perry has been a big proponent of the massive 3,000 square foot expansion that was a key driver for the renovation. It was also what slowed the job up, because no-one seemed to believe it was necessary: In fact, there were heavy protests that it would ruin the existing structure by crowding the small plot on which it sits. Moreover, there are still many unanswered questions about how this expansion fitted in with plans by old Perry donor and friend Gary Bradley to build an office/hotel complex next door.