Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his team are under fire from rival Kay Hutchison’s camp after Perry aide David Carney equated Republican Party expansion plans to a "whorehouse." In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Carney said he agreed the GOP needs to expand its ranks, but warned "that doesn’t mean you take your principles and throw them out the door and become a whorehouse and let anybody in who wants to come in, regardless."

Supporters of Hutchison, a Republican senator from Texas who will challenge Perry’s reelection campaign, blasted Carney’s comments. In a letter calling for Perry to repudiate Carney, Republican women wrote:

As businesswomen, community leaders and mothers, it is always concerning and disheartening when we see people resort to behavior aimed at belittling women. Therefore, you cannot imagine how appalling it was to see your campaign’s chief strategist liken our senior senator’s primary campaign to ‘opening the doors of a whorehouse.’

The letter concluded, "Not only do his words do a disservice to our efforts to provide conservative leadership, they denigrate the accomplishments of women everywhere." Perry’s camp insists Carney is an independent citizen and his remarks were not sanctioned by the governor’s campaign.