Perry website makes no secret of Democratic past

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) certainly doesn't hide from his history as a Democrat on his new presidential campaign website.

Perry is a Democrat-turned-Republican, having been a member of the GOP in 1989. His revamped website, launched Saturday to coincide with his entry into the race for the Republican presidential nomination, acknowledges that history.

"Perry would become one of millions of conservative Reagan Democrats," the website's "About" section says about Perry during the early 1980s.

Perry served three terms in the Texas state legislature before switching parties to run as state agricultural commissioner. Before switching parties, Perry served as state chairman of then-Sen. Al Gore's (D-Tenn.) presidential campaign.

Of course, Perry isn't the only admitted former Democrat in the field; Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has discussed openly in stump speeches that she and her husband had volunteered for Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential campaign.

But Perry's opponents are certainly cognizant of the new challenger's political history, and may point to it as the campaign proceeds, in order to poke holes in Perry's conservative veneer he hopes to build as a candidate for the GOP nomination.