Texas Monthly Talks
Anita Perry
The 53-year-old first lady of Texas on small-town values, getting burned by the press, what we don’t understand about the governor, and her reaction to “Adiós, mofo.”
(Page 2 of 2)
You seem enormously patient.
I’ve had to learn. I’ve been through a lot, Evan. Probably my skin has gotten thicker.
Okay, then: Patient with whom?
My children. My husband. This whole political world. Things really used to eat at me. And some things still do.
Does the press bother you? If it hurts my children or if it’s something about me. There have been a couple of times.
I’m thinking of one time in particular when you were unhappy about the intrusion, when your marriage was suddenly under a microscope. How did you deal with it?
Honestly, I probably stayed in more, wrapped my blanket around myself.
You did fault the press in that case?
Yes, because the rumor [about the governor’s sexual orientation and the possible breakup of their marriage] wasn’t true. I wanted them to really report it. That was something the Austin Chronicle did. They came out after it was over and said, “We did all the research. We followed up on all the leads. It’s not true.”
By Austin Chronicle you mean the alternative weekly?
Not exactly the governor’s biggest fans over there. I give them a lot of credit. And then after that, the talk kind of petered out—“There’s nothing there. Let’s move on.” I got through it. But it was hard. Griffin found out about it about two and a half months in, and he was really upset. I told him that he and [his sister] Sydney would be the first people in the world I would tell if I were leaving their father. We had cameras at the back gate. It was so silly. People called my mother pretending to be reporters! They called her in Haskell and said they were so-and-so from so-and-so. That upset her. That went over the line. I wanted to tell the world it wasn’t true, have a press conference, whatever I needed to do. But I was advised not to. I was told that that wasn’t the best way to handle it.
Did you learn something from that experience in terms of how to deal with the press?
It didn’t make me more press shy, but it made me more conscious of what I say. And there are people in the press who I trust more than others.
Do you think politics has gotten meaner in the years you’ve been the wife of a politician?
It is meaner. It’s harder to get good people to run for public office because of the strain. Everything is going to be an open book, so if you have anything, the tiniest thing, any old skeletons in your closet…It makes me very sad.
What do we do about that?
I don’t know what we do. I know what I try to do: I try to be nice to as many people as I can. I know that people don’t like me for this or that or the other reason and don’t like my husband, but I try to bring people together to work for a common cause.
Why do you think people don’t like you?
If you want to make a change, you have to make decisions, and sometimes decisions aren’t popular with everyone. But it’s always best to do what’s right and suffer the consequences.
And what do you do when you don’t think the right thing is being done?
There are times when I see myself as a voice of reason, when I present another side, whether the ultimate decision comes down on my side or not. I do it privately. Sometimes it’s not popular with the decision maker, but I feel like I have to say something.
You and the decision maker have been married for 23 years. I assume you’re as frank with him today as you’ve always been.
Well, he’s still my husband. If you want to be successful in your marriage, you have to communicate. If I don’t tell him my point of view and something changes that I’m not really for, then it’s my fault for not saying anything.
You understand that I’ll lose my press card if I don’t ask you to name an issue on which you and the decision maker disagree.
When I read in the paper that one of the options in the governor’s tax plan was to tax cosmetic surgery, I said, “Why didn’t you talk to me about this first? Cosmetic surgery is not just Botox or a face-lift or liposuction; it’s also for children with cleft palates. It’s a health issue.” If Evan Smith had a suspicious mole on his face that his physician said needed to be taken off, and he needed to see a plastic surgeon, that could be taxed. I don’t think it’s right to tax a preventive measure that could possibly keep him from having melanoma. So I said, “If you had just asked me, I could have given you my point of view. I don’t agree with that.”
Let’s stay on the decision maker for a minute. You said something earlier about what a nice guy the governor is, though that’s not necessarily the image of him that comes across in the press. What don’t we get about him after all these years?
I had someone say to me recently that he only caters to the top 1 to 5 percent of Republicans, and that is certainly not true. It couldn’t be any further from the truth. He cares about the children of Texas and the elderly of Texas and the abused and the suffering. But I think he believes that government on the whole overspends. It’s just like in our own household, when he says, “We’ve got to get ahold of the hemorrhaging of our finances.” Everybody needs to cut and do without. He’s not a mean-spirited person at all. He’s a very kind, generous, loving, compassionate conservative.
Do you still recognize him as the person you married?
He’s probably stronger now than when we were younger, but I’ve changed that same way. And we’ve probably gotten more conservative as we’ve gotten older.
Your conservative values were shaped by growing up in the small West Texas farming and ranching town of Haskell.
Well, my parents really shaped me. My mother would always say to me, “If you do something wrong, I’m going to find out about it before you get home,” and that was true. If I rode my bicycle somewhere I wasn’t supposed to, my mother knew. My daddy was a physician, and everybody knew him, so people would always come tell my parents.
They helped you understand right and wrong.
Oh, absolutely. I think that’s one thing that’s the matter with our family structure today. We don’t have role models for our children, whether or not they’re the natural parents.
Any role models?
I don’t have a problem if it’s a loving, nurturing home.
Do you miss being in a place like Haskell?
I don’t. I hate to say that. I miss my family.
Why don’t you miss it?
My home is here. My children are here. My friends are here. And I don’t miss the lifestyle. I love living in Austin. I love that everyone is physically fit. I love the arts. The restaurants. The hustle and bustle. Everything.
Would you stay in Austin when your time is up?
Oh, absolutely.
What are you going to do when you’re done being first lady?
I’d love to recruit medical personnel, physicians, pharmacists, nurses to Texas. And continue to spread the word about domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault.
Essentially extend your first lady portfolio into private life.
Or maybe I’ll write a children’s book. Anything to help children.
Sounds great. Okay, I think we’re about done—unless you want to say “Adiós, mofo” to me. [Laughs]
No, I will not say that.
What was the reaction to the governor’s locker room talk in your world?
I did have people say, “Gosh, he’s more human than we thought he was.”
What did you think when you heard about it? I read about it in the paper, and I said, “You said what ?” And then I met him in the bathroom with a bar of soap.
Pages: 1 2
My Library
