Party. However, several black Texas Democrats, such as former state Senator Ron Wilson and current Senator Royce West, defended Perry against accusations of racism, with Wilson saying "He doesn't have a racist bone in his body. He didn't then, and he doesn't now." and West pointing to "many things he has done that were sensitive to ethnic minorities". Perry's links to the New Apostolic Reformation and its founder C. Peter Wagner, who helped organize Perry's prayer rally The Response, also received scrutiny by enemies of Perry. Perry has said he doesn't necessarily endorse the views of Wagner, who has advocated publicly burning religious images and claimed that Japan is controlled by demons because its emperor had sex with the sun goddess. Media campaign and recovery attempts Perry's campaign, which announced that it had raised $17 million in early October, was well-positioned to endure a long and costly campaign against Mitt Romney. His campaign invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in television and radio advertisements in early states, and was able to finance serious ground operations. The commercials were positive and focused on his tax plan, energy initiatives, and jobs record as Texas governor. Perry put forward a flat tax proposal that would allow taxpayers to choose either their tax rate under existing law or a flat 20% rate. The plan would also eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits and inheritances. Asked if his tax plan would help wealthy taxpayers, Perry said he was not concerned about that because a lower tax rate would encourage greater investment and job creation by the wealthy. His tax plan was promoted as being so simple and easy that a taxpayer could calculate it on the back of an index card. Perry hired several high-profile Republican media advisers on October 24, 2011 and began launching more negative television ads against Mitt Romney. Perry's new media team was described as aggressive by Politico, which noted that many had worked for Gov. Rick Scott's 2010 campaign in Florida which it described as using "brass-knuckled tactics". One political analyst predicted that "Perry won't just go negative. He'll make your television bleed and beg for mercy". Perry joked freely during a speech he delivered at an annual banquet in New Hampshire. When clips of it went viral on the Internet, there were negative interpretations. Politico offered the idea that the way the video was cut suggested he was under