Rick Perry Used to Be a Democrat...Just Like Ronald Reagan

The Texas Tribune has a lengthy article on Rick Perry's Democrat past and his decision to move to the GOP, and since I expect Mitt Romney or one of the other candidates to try and make that an issue, it's worth reading the piece:

Gov. Rick Perry, a no-apologies conservative known for slashing government spending and opposing all tax increases, is about as Republican as you can get.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Perry spent his first six years in politics as a Democrat, in a somewhat forgotten history that is sure to be revived and scrutinized by Republican opponents if he decides to run for president.

A raging liberal he was not. Elected to represent a slice of rural West Texas in the state House of Representatives in 1984, Perry, a young rancher and cotton farmer, gained an early reputation as a fiscal conservative. He was one of a handful of freshman “pit bulls,” so named because they sat in the lower pit of the House Appropriations Committee, where they fought to keep spending low.

One of the biggest criticism is likely to be Perry's support for Al Gore in 1988:

Another political move Perry made back then: He was a top Texas supporter and organizer in 1988 for Al Gore, who ran as a southern conservative rather than the populist reformer he eventually became as the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee.

“I came to my senses,” Perry likes to say when asked about his Gore days.

I guarantee you that had Gore acted in 1988 like he acts today Perry would have had nothing to do with him.

Any candidate who attempts to make Perry's Democrat past into an issue will be quickly reminded that Ronald Reagan was also a Democrat. He famously said that he didn't leave the party, the party left him. I'm sure Perry had the same experience.