Perry speaks in Boston

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff

Fresh off a tough debate in which he was pressed on his views on Social Security and a controversial vaccination program of schoolgirls, Governor Rick Perry of Texas arrives tonight in hostile territory: Massachusetts.

The tough-talking Texan, who has gleefully skewered the Bay State as a bastion of gay marriage, mandated health care, and liberal politics, will be delivering a speech to the Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Awards dinner at the Hyatt Regency in Boston.

The audience of 350 will include supporters of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think thank. But they won’t necessarily be allies of Perry: many are are firmly backing Perry’s rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, for the Republican presidential nomination.

Perry is expected to contrast his job-creation record with Romney’s. He may also embrace his fish-out-of-water status in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts to burnish his image as a gun-toting governor unafraid of provocative language and staunchly conservative views.

Even among Massachusetts Republicans, he is something of an anomaly: his support for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants puts him to the left of most of the state’s Republicans, including Romney, who vetoed an in-state tuition bill in 2004.

Meanwhile, Perry’s strong opposition to abortion rights and gay rights, and his open embrace of Christianity, put him to the right of the state GOP, which has traditionally nominated moderates like former governor William F. Weld, who espouse a mix of fiscal conservativism and liberal social views.

“He’s certainly much more conservative than the Republicans who win office here,” said Peter Torkildsen, a former Republican congressman from Massachusetts and a former chairman of the state GOP, who is backing Romney. “It will be interesting to see what happens.”

Torkildsen said that if Perry wants to win the support of Massachusetts Republicans, he will need to do a better job explaining the “Ponzi scheme” statement and other controversial arguments he makes in his book, which was published earlier this year. “If you come here and can’t defend things you said six moths ago, you’re not going to get a reception at all,” he said. “Hopefully, he’ll be better prepared to defend his own positions, which he apparently had a tough time doing at the Tea Party debate.”

Perry, who has replaced Romney at the front of the Republican nomination contest, was invited to speak to Pioneer back in March, well before he launched his presidential campaign. The think tank has worked with Perry’s administration to toughen Texas’ education standards.

“They’ve seen something admiring there that they want him to talk about, so he can’t be a complete fish out of water,” said Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party. “I think because Rick Perry is not seen as a far-right social conservative he might find more of an audience in Massachusetts than conventional wisdom might dictate.”

Weld, who is backing Romney, will also speak at the dinner, along with state Representative William Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat who is the recipient of this year’s Better Government Award for his proposal to overhaul the state pension system. Jennifer Nassour, the chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, is scheduled to attend, a spokesman said.

Perry is arriving in Massachusetts after a heated debate last night in Florida.

During that debate, Romney pounced on Perry for his statement that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” while others criticized Perry for requiring that Texas schoolgirls entering the sixth grade receive vaccinations for the human papilloma virus, which can lead to cervical cancer. Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann was among the sharpest critics of that program, saying it violated parents’ rights and may have benefited a former Perry aide who went to work for the drug company that made the vaccine.

In addition to discussing politics and policy with Perry, some of the guests at tonight’s dinner may also want to ask the governor about his habit of mocking Massachusetts.

This summer, Perry dismissed President Obama’s vacation on Martha’s Vineyard by declaring, “I’m not even sure where it is.” And he happiy lampooned the Commonwealth in his book, “Fed Up!”

“I would no more consider living in Massachusetts than I suspect a great number of folks from Massachusetts would like to live in Texas,” Perry wrote. ”We just don’t agree on a number of things. They passed state-run health care, they have sanctioned gay marriage, and they elected Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Barney Frank repeatedly – even after actually knowing about them and what they believe!”