As Texas Gov. Rick Perry dips his toe in presidential waters, not all Texas Republicans are getting that tingling feeling up their legs.

Coming off a frustrating legislative session in Austin, restive conservatives say the 10-year governor failed to deliver on several issues they cared about.

Though Texas' economy has revved up with Perry at the wheel -- generating a whopping 36 percent of the nation's new jobs -- tea party groups express increasing concern that the governor has gone wobbly or slipped into auto pilot.

"The 2012-2013 budget was balanced with tax payment speed-ups, accounting gimmicks and an estimated $4.6 billion charge to a 'Medicaid credit card,'" says JoAnn Fleming, of the Texas TEA Party Caucus.

In a shot at Perry, who frequently criticizes the federal government, Fleming asks, "If kicking the can down the road and delaying tough decisions is wrong in Washington, D.C., what makes it right for Texas?"

Other unfinished business remains a burr under the conservatives' saddle. Pay cuts for state officials making $60,000 or more and selected hiring freezes failed to pass. Meantime, dozens of overlapping or duplicative agencies (23 agencies manage natural resources) remain unreformed and unconsolidated.

Then there's the hot-button issue of immigration.

As in Florida, Texas' Republican-controlled Legislature failed to enact an E-Verify law to curb the employment of illegal aliens. Perry's inability to push through even a watered-down bill prohibiting the designation of so-called "sanctuary cities" has tea party and patriot groups fighting mad.

Perry's tarnished border reputation has extended to Florida, where immigration-control advocate George Fuller said, "Any politician who enthusiastically supports a crime bill but ignores legislation to help solve the problem -- such as E-Verify and denial of welfare -- is not interested in doing anything to really end the chaos and anarchy."

"My guess is that Perry would play the same game as George W. Bush did and angle for amnesty," Fuller said.

The toughest skeptics on the right even wonder about Perry's bona fides, recalling that the former cotton farmer and retired Air Force captain was once a Democrat who directed Al Gore's presidential bid in Texas in 1988. Then again, Ronald Reagan used to be a union member.

Perry certainly didn't impress the National Conference of Editorial Writers last year when he addressed the group in Dallas, and refused to take any questions, as is the custom at journalistic gatherings.

NCEW member Paul Choiniere also noted that Perry declined to sit down with any of Texas' newspaper editorial boards during his most recent re-election run.

"My lasting impression from Perry's appearance was not a good one," said Choiniere, who writes for The Day in Connecticut.

Perry's negatives are nowhere near Florida Gov. Rick Scott's, but the Texas governor's cozy relationship with the state's business titans raises suspicions that he is bought and paid for by cheap-labor advocates like Houston homebuilder Bob Perry (no relation). Last year, Perry gave $2.5 million to the governor.

The governor's increasingly frequent out-of-state trips aren't necessarily playing well at home, either.

During one recent three-week period, the 61-year-old Perry jetted off to California twice to press the flesh and raise money for his possible presidential bid. That's triggered potshots from the right and left.


SIZING UP THE GOVERNOR'S CHANCES IN FLORIDA

With the Iowa straw poll barely a month away, the clock is ticking, and California political consultant Bob Schuman has been spending time in the Hawkeye State, talking with GOP leaders to assess how Perry could play there.

"The one message that I'm getting is that it's wide-open up here," Schuman told the Austin American-Statesman.