Rick Perry's team is more than prepared for a re-airing of unsubstantiated rumors. Perry aides prepped for rumor rehash

If Texas Gov. Rick Perry decides to run for president, his team is more than prepared for a re-airing of unsubstantiated rumors, circulated on and off for years in the Lone Star State, about his personal life.

The crusted-over rumors were in the ether among some attendees at a dinner hosted last week by the Manhattan County GOP, where Perry gave the keynote speech. The rumors, which have never been proven despite repeated review by media outlets, were addressed by the governor himself in a lengthy 2004 American-Statesman story that is sure to see new life if he runs.


The claims, which had made the rounds for months by the time the story was written, included rumors that Perry and his wife Anita had split, and that the governor was gay.

The state Democratic Party in Texas seized on the rumors seven years ago, the American-Statesman reported, prompting the governor to finally address them himself as an "obvious, orchestrated effort" launched by political foes. They spread for two months, were posted on various websites and were vetted by many national outlets, all of which turned up nothing.

But Team Perry, asked about how it's prepared to handle them when they emerge if he runs, said it remains "false and misleading."

"As you may know, Rick and Anita Perry first met in grade school, went on their first date together in 1966, have been lovingly married since 1982 and are parents to two grown children," said top Perry strategist Dave Carney. "This kind of nameless, faceless smear campaign is run against the Perry family in seemingly every campaign, with no basis, truth or success."

"Texas politics is a full contact sport, live hand grenades and all; unfortunately there are always going to be some people who feel the need to spread false and misleading rumors to advance their own political agenda," he said.

"He is the most tested, most researched potential candidate or candidate on our side," Carney added to POLITICO.

"We ran in a race against an opponent run by (David) Axelrod in 1998, we ran a campaign that reported spend $80 million against us in 2002, we have run against two Texas trial lawyers in 06 and 10 and the head of the Texas Trial Lawyer Association has spent millions of his own money to destroy the Perry’s. All of it for naught."

They were thrust into the mainstream in part by the then-Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Charles Soechting, who referred to the rumors at a recent political rally. But Perry took them head-on when they wouldn't disappear, despite his aides' denials.

At the time, Perry said he was addressing the rumors because of the increasing problem of web-driven smears.

"It is a cancer on the political process that is deadly," he told the American-Statesman back then.

But since then, viral rumors have taken hold as a permanent side show looking to break through into the mainstream of politics. Then-candidate Barack Obama faced a slew of them in the 2008 race, ranging from questions about his marriage to his religion.

The questions about his birthright, which he brushed back with mockery earlier this year by releasing his Hawaiian birth certificate, swirled on the web for years, propelled by fringe bloggers, some of whom refused to believe the document was real.