Tea Party Texans Diss Perry

Rick Perry has zoomed to the top in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but members of one group of Texans are not so thrilled with their governor: tea party activists.

Texas tea partyers are disenchanted with Perry because they feel he has flip-flopped on a number of key issues, including immigration and federal stimulus funds, Roll Call reports.

“A lot of what he’s done doesn’t measure up to his rhetoric,” said tea party activist Don Zimmerman, a member of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee.

Critics in the tea party also point to Perry’s ties to corporate donors and the inner circle of the Texas GOP.

“Both party establishments are growing government, and Rick Perry is just kind of a poster boy for that,” Debra Medina, a tea party leader who challenged Perry during the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary, told Roll Call.

Perry is also competing against fellow Texan and true tea party favorite, Rep. Ron Paul.

“I think the heart and the soul of the tea party is with Ron Paul,” Zimmerman told Roll Call.

Perry himself doesn’t seem too worried about the criticism from within his home state. When Fox News asked him why some Texas tea party groups don’t like him, he replied, “A prophet is generally not loved in their hometown.”