As the Republican hopefuls vying for their party’s presidential nomination gather in New Hampshire Monday for the second GOP debate, some of the attention is shifting to Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry is weighing whether to jump in the race. Perry is said to be seriously considering such a move, which many political strategists believe would shake up a field of candidates who have so far failed to excite voters.
“If he decided to enter, I think he can win,” said Texas political consultant Reggie Bashur, who advised President George W. Bush when Bush was governor. “Perry’s got an outstanding record as governor. He’s got a strong record on economic as well as social conservative issues. He’s also very personable and a very one-on-one candidate.”
The buzz about Perry, now serving his third term as governor, has been growing for weeks and reached new heights last week when two of his closest political associates quit their jobs on the troubled presidential campaign of Newt Gingrich, making them available for a Perry campaign.
Dave Carney, a longtime political strategist, and Rob Johnson, who managed Perry’s campaigns for governor, are among the aides who abandoned Gingrich, citing discord over how to run his fledgling campaign.
“There are lots of other operatives who are close to Perry,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “But these two guys have run his last several campaigns and he would just be much more comfortable and confident at the table if they were talking strategy.”
Republican strategists tell The Washington Examiner they believe Perry is being tempted by a GOP field that is wide open, despite former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s lead in some polls. Romney’s best poll gives him only 25 percent of the vote, with many of the rest of the candidates in the low teens or single digits.
Sarah Palin, the party’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, trails Romney by a few points. But she has not formally entered the race, and Perry could be waiting to see if she does. An early member of the Tea Party movement, Perry would easily attract that faction of voters if Palin decides not to run.
“Assuming that Sarah Palin doesn’t get in and soak up all the oxygen out of the Tea Party wing of the party, there is a clear opening for someone with Perry’s credentials,” Jillson said.
Perry would be able to run on his record of bringing jobs to Texas while other states struggle with high unemployment rates, say GOP strategists.
“And he’s a candidate who could definitely have some appeal in the Southern states,” said election analyst Jim Ellis, of Prism Information Network. “The path to the Republican nomination goes through the South.”
Still, Perry would have challenges of his own should he enter.
Perry has been popular in the Lone Star State, in part, because he has been a frequent critic of the federal government. He once suggested Texas might secede from the United States out of frustration with Washington, D.C.
“So much of what made him successful in Texas has been his bashing the national government,” Jillson said. “And you can’t run for president bashing the national government.”
