Future Governor’s Mansion

TYLER, Texas — Most political candidates promise to start a new program or policy on their first day in office, but Bill White has different plans if elected Texas governor. The Democrat says his first bold move would be into a mobile home.

In another jab at Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is costing taxpayers $10,000 a month by renting a mansion outside Austin, White vowed during a swing through East Texas on Wednesday to move into a trailer home if elected. The millionaire businessman and former Houston mayor currently lives in a 4,122-square-foot home appraised at $2.1 million, but said he would be the portrait of frugality the moment he took office.

“It will start when I move, on the first day that I’m sworn into office, out of that fancy rental mansion into a double-wide trailer,” White said. “Where I come from, fiscal conservatism means you don’t waste money on yourself.” Perry is living in a 6,386-square-foot mansion in a gated community in the hills outside Austin — costing the state $600,000 in the last two years, according to records obtained by The Associated Press — while the white columned, two-story governor’s mansion in Austin undergoes repairs.

Uh-huh.




  1. rgspro says:

    Chicago Mayor Jane Burn tried that once to prove a point, she moved into Cabrene Green, Low income housing, to try to clean it up. It lasted about a month, then the Mayor and 100 body guards moved out and crime moved back in. Point is, once the press dies down, he’s back to the mansion.

    Then again, who cares about the story, I would love to live in that trailer park pictured!

  2. Dallas says:

    Unfortunately, Perry is courting the religious sheeple vote with the time proven bible belt bull.

    Sadly, the sheeple are not concerned about fraud and waste.

  3. Dallas says:

    I hope Palin endorses Perry for mayor of Pennsylvania (yes,mayor of Pennsylvania).

    http://gawker.com/5667918/sarah-palin-endorses-senate-candidate-in-wrong-state

  4. Bhelverson says:

    The mansion burned. That’s why Governor Goodhair is living in a private compound at taxpayer expense.

    Don’t sell Mayor White sort. He and the Harris County Executive teamed up to help Katrina refugees and, but most reports, did a magnificent job. Even blogger Charles Kuffner at http://offthekuff.com/wp/, a very critical observer of Houston politics, gave Mayor White high marks. Mayor White would be a good Governor and far better than the last two occupants.

  5. Wealthmongering says:

    I would be more impressed if he gave away all of his wealth to the poor, moved into a trailer, and then told everyone about his great scheme to be frugal. Long as he keeps all his hardly hard earned assetts, given freely by stock portfolios that suck money from the losers in the game, this is just another political scam for votes.

  6. Nutjob says:

    Surprise. Another hillbilly rednecked Dim trying to devalue the office of governor.

  7. admfubar says:

    all politico’s that gert elected should have to give up all their money (yes donate it to a charity, then work for minimum wage, and upon leaving office get a real job in the service sector like telemarketing..

    i got more ideas

  8. admfubar says:

    oh yea, and that trailer park in the picture… it is just looking for a tornado

  9. clancys_daddy says:

    Tornado’s only hit full trailer parks. So always look for the one that keeps one spot empty to ward them off.

  10. deowll says:

    The retiring governor of TN has never taken a dollar of pay. He was rich. He said the state was short on funds so he refused pay. We own the building the governor lives in and it is open for tours on occasion so they live there and make sure the place is taken care of. He is a good man.

  11. McCullough says:

    #10. Maybe so, maybe not. Salary is the least consideration….it’s the bennies and the POWER, the under the table deals, the I’ve scratched your back..now scratch mine…. that’s where the real money is.

    Why else would filthy rich people run?

  12. Animby - just phoning it in says:

    It’s just a stunt and will make the lives of his trailer trash neighbors a living hell (as if it weren’t bad enough already) for the short time he would actually live there. Governors need to entertain visiting dignitaries. What’s he gonna do? Hold State dinners at IHOP?

    If he’s only gonna live (not work) there, then why would he stick the taxpayers for a double-wide?

  13. Lou Minatti says:

    Bill White has a very nice mansion in River Oaks and made hundreds of millions from the energy business. I suspect that if he somehow became governor the River Oaks mansion would become his defacto governor’s mansion until the real one in Austin is repaired.

  14. bobbo, libertarianism fails when its Dogma blinds them to the rising threat of Corporations that can only be held in check by Government thru the will of the people says:

    I’ve been enamored for a while now of welding those excess cargo containers together. Got several designs from 3 to 9 containers. Fun to see the space that can be created by stacking them. So much better than stick and twig mobile homes. Damn building codes.

  15. Animby - just phoning it in says:

    # 13 Lou Minatti said,”the River Oaks mansion would become his defacto governor’s mansion until the real one in Austin is repaired.”

    You expect he would commute a couple hundred miles every morning?

  16. Mitch says:

    White seemed to be a good mayor for Houston, but he will not have my vote for Governor. The Governor’s office in Texas is a weak power position (Lt. Gov. has the power since the civil war and the carpet baggers.) Perry has done a good enough job and can keep it in my view. The Governor’s Mansion, owned by the state was a victim of Arson while it was be renovated/restored. The fact the State decided to put the Governor up in another mansion is not the Governor’s idea, but it is a State decision, and used for State functions, and security for the governor. White just isn’t able to find anything credible to knock Perry on, so pick on the house he lives in…weak. State politics is best left to those who actually live in the state.

  17. MikeN says:

    The amount being spent on salary is minor compared to the power wielded. I will give Congress $10 million a year each if they will cut spending. $5 billion to save one thousand billion is worthwhile.

    When I see Barney Frank spending $200k in his campaign, I wonder what deals he stands to lose by losing the election, that is worth investing $200k?

    If White is willing to give up that much, what is he gaining?

    Perhaps it is just a clever ploy to get elected, going after Perry’s biggest weakness.

  18. MikeN says:

    #3, she was referring to the Senate seat from one of Obama’s 57 states.

  19. Animby - just phoning it in says:

    14 Bobbo – Whaddya think the US military and UN are doing? When I first started this work they gave us tents. Starting in Guantanamo ’91, they delivered hug quantities of supplies and maintained the shipping containers as barracks. I lived in one for a while in Mozambique. They had it fitted with underpowered A/C but no windows. Very claustrophobic. Especially in a hammock with seven sweaty, snoring, farting soldiers. (These were half length shipping containers.) I started sleeping in my clinic – which was another container. No hammock, I slept on my exam table. Still claustrophobic but when a fart wafted past my nose, I knew where it came from.

  20. boxpert says:

    Container homes are great, but it kills me that the banks & appraisers out there won’t treat it as real property. They say you can pick it up and take it away so they won’t finance it… even though it’s sturdier than standard sticks and mortar construction!


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