As Texas Gov. Rick Perry feels out a 2012 presidential bid with calls to party activists in early-voting states, GOP leaders have assured him that the door is wide open for another socially conservative candidate with Tea Party backing to get into the Republican presidential race.

But just how ironclad are Perry's Tea Party credentials?

RealClearPolitics reporter Scott Conroy points out that the Texas Republican has some questionable taxpayer-funded spending habits that may not pass muster with cost-cutting conservatives.

Here are some highlights from Perry's publicly-funded personal spending bill, via RCP:

$700,000 for the "lavish" rental home where Perry has lived for nearly four years, while the governor's mansion is being renovated.

$8,400 for maintenance on the house's heated pool.

$1,001 for Neiman Marcus window coverings

$1,000 for repairs on a filtered ice machine.

$70 for a home subscription to Food & Wine magazine (this one is sure to draw populist ire).

Perry has previously come under fire for taxpayer-financed house bills. In 2007, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee — a conservative favorite who lived in a trailer while his governor's residence was under repair — suggested Perry should follow his example and find a good mobile home. Perry's response: "Texas ain't Arkansas."

This Texas exceptionalism — considered by many to be one of Perry's strengths — could land him in hot water in a national presidential campaign.

"A lot of the stuff that he got away with in Texas, you could only get away with as governor of Texas," a national Republican political operative with experience in Texas politics told RCP. "He plays a good ol' boy, but he has a fancy-ass house in a fancy neighborhood."