Governor Rick Perry spoke to a standing room only crowd at Junior’s Grill and Icehouse in downtown Round Rock on Thursday afternoon at a political rally aimed at “getting out the vote” for all the Republicans on the ticket.  Larry Gonzales, Republican nominee for State Representative, District 52, gave a campaign update prior to the governor taking the podium.   Governor Perry spoke for about fifteen minutes about familiar issues, emphasizing how the federal government is having problems doing two of the three things they must do so the feds should “leave Texas to take care of our business.”   He said the three things the federal government should do, according to Gov. Perry's father, are delivering the mail, securing the border, and maintaining the military.   Governor Perry said the feds only do the last one well.  He went on to praise Texas for being named the best state in the nation to do business by CNBC. He said that the second best state for business was Virginia, and that the governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, had called to congratulate him after the announcement.  Gov. McDonnell also said that he is working to beat Texas, and Gov. Perry said he welcomed the competition.    Gov. Perry also praised Larry several times and said that, “We need some help like you, brother.”

Quite a few local elected officials attended including US Congressman John Carter, County Judge Dan A. Gattis, Commissioner Cynthia Long, Commissioner Ron Morrison, County Clerk Nancy Rister, Round Rock Mayor Alan McGraw, Cedar Park City Councilmembers Tony Dale, Matt Powell and Don Tracy, Republican Party Chairman Bill Fairbrother, me and others.   In addition to Mr. Gonzales, Dr. Charles Schwertner, Republican candidate for State Representative, District 20, attended. Dr. Schwertner was affectionately referred to as “Doc” by the governor.  A large contingent of Sun City residents rode a chartered bus in to the event. All in all, the attendees seemed energetic and ready to work hard in the waning days of the election cycle.