Davis Asks Perry to Take Action on White

Following up on her call last week for state Finance Commissioner William White to resign his post, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis is now requesting Gov. Rick Perry to take action.

"I urge you to join me in calling for William White to resign from his post as a member of the Finance Commission of Texas," Davis wrote in a Jan. 7 letter. "If Mr. White refuses to resign, he should be removed as chairman in favor of a qualified person, who will preserve the stated purpose of the commission upon creation — to protect Texas consumers."

Davis has spent the past week trying to insert debate over the payday lending industry into the governor's race after White, an executive with payday lender Cash America, made comments to an El Paso Times reporter saying that people who take out payday loans "are responsible for their decisions." Davis has also pointed to a January 2011 interview she gave to the Texas Observer in which she called White's appointment as "the classic fox in the henhouse."

The Greg Abbott campaign has pushed back by pointing out that Davis voted in May 2011 to confirm a batch of appointments, one of which was White's.