Rick Perry became a millionaire while in government

Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

When he became the state representative from Haskell in 1985, the married father of two was far from living high on the hog. In 1987, the earliest federal tax return Perry has released, the couple reported total income of $45,224.
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Since 1996, Perry has put most of his investments into a blind trust. A spokesman for Perry's campaign could not provide the trust's current value. Though the arrangement has shielded most of Perry's investments from public view, his finances again drew sharp attention in 2007 when he reported income of over $1 million.
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Perry purchased the land from state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, in 2001 for $314,770. Six years later, Perry sold it for $1.1 million, pulling a profit of $823,776. Perry has attributed the gain to a favorable market for Hill Country land.
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The Perrys have yet to file their 2010 taxes and have requested an extension, according to a spokesperson. In 2009, Perry reported $135,278 in wages as governor. From 2004 to 2009, Anita Perry reported average annual pay of $63,111 from work with the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.

Perry's financial history will provide a contrast to some of his rivals on the national stage. While primary rival Mitt Romney made a fortune in the private sector before jumping into politics, Perry's biggest gains took place while in elected office.

Though Perry has written books, the profits from the books are donated to the Boy Scouts. He's gotten rich as a public official and frankly some of these real estate deals sound like the sort of thing Republicans had a huge problem with when Bill Clinton was running for office and the story was the Whitewater Development Corporation.