Governor Rick Perry's HPV Vaccine Mandate; GOP Wins Weiner's Old Seat; Rick Perry Visits Virginia
KAYE: Besides Social Security, Rick Perry's HPV vaccine mandate was a hot topic at the CNN/Tea Party Express GOP debate. Michele Bachmann tore off the gloves, going after the Texas governor for forcing young girls to get vaccinated and calling into question his relationship with the drug manufacturer Merck. Our own Ed Lavandera has a closer look at Perry and Merck.</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The HPV controversy has hovered over Rick Perry for more than four years. But it wasn't until the CNN/Tea Party debate that Perry's opponents really dug into the Texas governor.</s>REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat-out wrong. The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor, and this is just flat-out wrong.</s>GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The company was Merck, and it was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them. I raise about $30 million. And if you're saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended.</s>LAVANDERA: Five thousand dollars in 2006, according to Texas campaign finance documents, but altogether Merck has donated more than $28,000 to Rick Perry's gubernatorial campaigns in the last 10 years. More than $20,000 of those donations were made before the governor issued the controversial HPV executive order.</s>PERRY: But I do not understand why we, as a people, would not take this opportunity to use this vaccine that's come to us</s>LAVANDERA: That was Rick Perry back in 2007 trying to muster support for the HPV vaccine mandate, but he was heavily criticized when it emerged that his former chief of staff Mike Toomey had worked as a lobbyist for Merck and other companies before and after working for Perry. Dallas Tea Party activist Katrina Pierson attended the debate, and says most people in the hall weren't happy with Perry's answers on this issue.</s>KATRINA PIERSON, DALLAS TEA PARTY: Capital cronyism is extremely important and it runs rampant throughout both parties and the issue needs to be discussed and we need to make sure that we have a candidate committed to principled legislation and governing, not special interest driven.</s>LAVANDERA: But the relationship between Rick Perry, his former chief of staff, and the drug maker Merck is troubling to campaign finance watchdogs like Texans for Public Justice. It found that while Perry was prominent in the Republican Governors Association, Merck donated more than $377,000 to the RGA. That's since 2006. In the same period, the association has donated $4 million to Rick Perry's campaigns for governor, all perfectly legal, but a glimpse into how money runs through the political system. And now Rick Perry says he handled the HPV vaccine issue all wrong.</s>PERRY: But on that particular issue, I will tell you that I made a mistake by not going to the legislature first. At the end of the day, this was about trying to stop a cancer.</s>KAYE: Ed Lavandera joins us now. So, Ed, do you think that Perry's relationship with Merck might hurry the campaign, or no?</s>LAVANDERA: Well, it's interesting. It didn't hurt him in the last gubernatorial election here. Rick Perry defeated Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who was believed at the time to be the most popular Republican politician in the state. And Perry defeated her soundly in the primary, and then went on to win the general election as well. Perry's folks have said for more than four years that that relationship between Perry and his former chief of staff, and him going on to work for Merck, had no bearing on his decision. They say everything was above board and have long denied that. It hasn't affected him in this campaign or in the last election here in Texas. We'll see how this issue continues to kind of fester over here in the presidential election.</s>KAYE: Yes. Something, though, Ed, that the viewers couldn't see at home was really what happened after the debate, where a lot of Tea Partiers jumped ship, and now they're backing Romney. So you think we might expect to see more of that after this debate?</s>LAVANDERA: You know, that's one of the things we brought up with the Dallas Tea Party activist that was in the story there. She had just flown back here to Dallas. We were talking to her, and I said, "That explanation on the HPV vaccine issue, how did that go over? Did he win people over in that hall?" She didn't think so. So it will be interesting to see if that one issue has turned a lot of people away. She mentioned the words there, "capital cronyism." That's a popular phrase right now, and it's spreading among a lot of Tea Partiers. And it's something that they don't like, and they're looking for people who can avoid that.</s>KAYE: All right. Ed Lavandera, nice job digging into Perry's history there. Appreciate it. Thank you. Well, they have fought to keep our country safe, but our veterans are fighting another battle right here at home. One word: jobs. We'll show you how one vet is winning that fight, next.