He was the Republican Party nominee for United States Congress in Massachusetts's 10th congressional district in the 2010 election, losing to Democrat Bill Keating.
[12] While serving as a State Representative, Perry attended night classes for four years at the New England School of Law, where he was recognized as "the student who has shown the greatest promise of outstanding contributions to public service."
[19] He is the author of a self-published book titled, My GOP: It is Time for Republicans to Get Back to the Principles of Ronald Reagan.
[22][23] Perry unsuccessfully sponsored legislation to require residency verification as a condition for receiving public benefits.
[4] Perry said he hopes efforts by Governor Deval Patrick to reduce earmarks will succeed, but until then "each legislator has to fight or we're going to get left out.
"[27] Thus, he requested earmarks himself, such as $25,000 for the Sandwich Glass Museum,[27] and $16 million to bring widespread broadband access to Cape Cod.
[28] He opposed using state funds for a convict's sex change operation[29] and has supported tax credits for home heating costs.
[34] Perry has advocated reducing the state's gasoline excise tax in July and August to stimulate the tourism industry.
[37] In 2004, Perry won 66% to 34% over Democrat Garry N. Blank in the general election for the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the Fifth Barnstable district.
[40] He launched his campaign before Democratic incumbent William Delahunt announced his retirement, making this an open seat.
[43] Flanagan pleaded guilty in 1993 to indecent assault and civil rights violations, and subsequently was sentenced to four years in prison.
In June 2010, former Wareham police captain Paul Cardalino told the Cape Cod Times that he had not been informed of the December 31, 1992, strip-search incident involving H. Adams immediately, and only heard about it the next day from an officer from the neighboring town of Bourne.
Cardalino said that Perry should have filed a report and called in a neutral superior officer as soon as he heard that a third party had witnessed the strip search.
In a sworn deposition, Joyce stated that Perry "had not been 100 percent truthful to me" in an incident about breaking a radar gun.
Joyce, who had been also named as a defendant in civil suits about the sexual assault strip-search cases, said the attacks against Perry regarding the two strip search incidents go too far.
Perry included an inaccurate statement on his bar application that Lisa Allen had been arrested on the night that she had been sexually abused by Flanagan.
These inaccuracies caused the former executive director of a state commission advocating for victims of sexual abuse to call for an investigation into whether Perry lied on his bar application.
[56] In 2010 controversy arose over a claim on Perry's 2002 campaign website that he had earned a bachelor's degree in business administration with honors from the so-called Columbia State University,[57] an unaccredited diploma mill that shipped out phony certificates until federal agents shut it down in 1998.
[58] In August 2010, Perry acknowledged that he had paid Columbia State University "several thousand dollars" under the impression it was an accredited institution.
Perry claimed he was among those who had been conned and despite only sending a couple of "non work intensive" papers, that he thought he was getting a legitimate correspondence bachelor's degree.