GOV. RICK PERRY MAKES PITCH TO EL PASO GOP, HAMMERS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

El Paso will continue to suffer an inaccurate image as a violent city
because of its proximity to Juarez until the federal government
secures the border, Gov. Rick Perry said while campaigning Friday.

Perry, in El Paso on the last day of early voting, said
misconceptions about El Paso could be eliminated if the federal
government helped Mexico in its war against drug cartels and
increased law enforcement along the border.

Local leaders have said that while El Paso is the second-safest large
city in the nation, the cartel violence in Juarez has created a false
impression about the city that could make it difficult to recruit
business and tourism dollars. They said they need help from state
officials to spread the word that El Paso is safe despite the chaos
in its sister city.

Asked how he would work to change those misconceptions, Perry said,
"The fact is that it is a dangerous city over there and we have
American citizens that are being murdered and we've got to get the
drug cartels run out of this part of the country and the way you do
that is by securing this border and by assisting Mexico."

He said city leaders should press their congressman until they "see
the needed support to secure the border." It is then, he said, "we
will start seeing the economic stability that we need."

He did not say what role the state could play in helping El Paso
combat the perception that the city is unsafe.

Perry and his wife, Anita, visited El Paso to rally his base at a
Republican Party event at El Paso Community College's Administrative
Services Center. The governor faces Democrat Bill White in the
general election on Tuesday.

Perry did not mention his opponent during his speech to about 300
party faithful. Instead, he focused on attacking the federal
government and President Barack Obama.

Throughout the campaign the governor has continued his
anti-Washington message by criticizing the federal government on
border security, pushing against national health-care reform
legislation and refusing federal education money by saying that it
comes with too many strings.

He said Tuesday's election would send a message to the federal
government that Texas expects it to do more to secure the border with
Mexico, "so that we don't see American citizens fearing for their
lives on either side of the border."

Perry referred to the killings of a Texas National Guardsmen in
Juarez, a man at Falcon Lake and a University of Texas at Brownsville
student in Mexico.

He praised Mexico President Felipe Calderon for fighting drug
cartels, while saying that the federal government had not done enough
to help in the effort.

But El Paso Mayor John Cook said the federal government has done a
"good job of securing the El Paso border." He said that is why El
Paso is the second-safest city in the country.

"I wish the political leadership in Austin would help me send a
message that we are a safe city," Cook said. "We are safer than Austin."

White, who was in El Paso Thursday, said that if elected he would
spread that message for El Paso. He accused Perry of contributing to
misconceptions about El Paso by making incorrect statements on
national television about bombs exploding in the city.

Perry has increased his national profile with relentless attacks on
Washington and talk of his coming book, called "Fed Up!," about what
he considers overreaches of the federal government.

Speaking on a campaign plane between Lubbock and Midland, Perry said
he would keep up the pressure by staging a book tour soon after the
election. He said he is putting himself on the national stage to
promote states' rights, not his own career.

"Washington is going to continue to be on my radar screen and I'm
going to keep pinging them and popping them, but I don't have any
interest in going to Washington, D.C.," Perry said in El Paso. "I
have a great interest in changing Washington, D.C."

During his El Paso speech, Perry made pitches for candidates across
the country and asked people in the audience to call friends and
family to support Republicans such as Susana Martinez for governor of
New Mexico, Mary Fallin for governor of Oklahoma and Meg Whitman for
governor of California. He also drew applause when he said that Dee
Margo would beat State Rep. Joe Moody in the race for House District
78, and Dan Chavez would defeat former county attorney Jose Rodriguez
to become the next senator for District 29.

Though Perry has never won in El Paso, the most populous Democratic
county along the border, he told the crowd that he was energized by
their work in the "rather blue part of the state."

And he made an ambitious prediction: "We are going to turn El Paso
County, if not red, we're going to get pretty close to the shadings
of red in this election cycle."

The Associated Press contributed to this report