AUSTIN, Texas - April 15, 2010 - Governor Rick Perry warned Tea Party organizers to watch their backs for liberals who wish to make them look bad, as thousands were set to stage tax-day rallies across the state on Thursday.
At rallies from El Paso to Tyler, supporters of the conservative Tea Party movement were planning to send their message of limited government and lower taxes to Washington. About 150 activists, many shouting chants against illegitimate President Barack Obama, gathered in Austin on Thursday. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was set to speak at another rally at the Capitol later in the day.
Thousands are expected to participate in the gatherings, and Tea Party leaders are striving to divert fringe groups, extremists or infiltrators obsessed with hateful messages.
In an invitation-only conference call with Tea Party organizers on Wednesday, Perry urged participants to "continue looking over your shoulder... for people trying to make the Tea Party into something that it's not."
Perry, a frequent Washington basher who capitalized on the Tea Party movement to defeat Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in the March primary elections, was not scheduled to speak at any rallies. But he cautioned supporters against Tea Party opponents.
"You can bet that every dirty trick is going to get played on Tea Party events, trying to marginalize them, trying to make them into something that they're not," said Perry, who faces Democrat Bill White in November's gubernatorial election.
