Rick Perry Eyes Late August Campaign Launch

On the day of the Iowa Straw Poll, Governor Perry will be the headliner at the 2011 RedState Gathering in South Carolina who follows Iowa and New Hampshire for early primary states.

With so many candidates not going to the Iowa Straw Poll, a late launch in August makes perfect sense.  In fact, more people have said that the debates started too early and that Iowa's Straw Poll is not representative of how candidates are doing.  It is meant for the candidates who park themselves in Iowa.  With Romney's non-participation and Huckabee not running the amount of money raised in 2012 will be much less than 2008 when Romney and Huckabee bused in people to the Iowa Straw Poll paying for ballots.  Romney, Huntsman, and Gingrich are participating.  Since they chose not to put Perry on the ballot since he is not officially in the race, why not wait and announce AFTER the Straw Poll.  Whatever bounce a candidate takes away from Iowa will be lessened by Rick Perry's entrance into the race.  Looking forward to his headliner speech in South Carolina.

Many donors large and small are ready for the Perry launch to start making their donations to the Perry for President campaign.  If you are even remotely involved with the oil and gas industry or any industry the EPA has been attempting to destroy, then you are going to be writing those checks right away.  You can take it to the bank that the large donors in our region of the country have been waiting for Rick Perry to announce because frankly the candidates we have right now don't seem to have an understanding of how the EPA has been destroying jobs with their rules.

As a State's Rights person, fully support the Governor in his stand on gay marriage. If it is not in the Constitution, then my state has a right to act on its own which is exactly what Governor Perry is saying. Perry is not condoning gay marriage but telling states it is their business. I live in Oklahoma which is my choice, and we already passed a ban on gay marriage.

For years, we have heard that Roe v Wade should be handled in the states which we totally agree the federal government should not have been involved in telling all states they had to allow abortion.  Now those same people want a federal marriage amendment which is telling all states what to do.  Looks like hypocrisy to a lot of us.  Either they believe in the 10th amendment or they don't.  It is not something you pick and choose to suit your agenda.  If conservatives want abortion decided at the state level then why are they touting a marriage amendment at the Federal level?

The day The Governor gets in the race, a whole group of us across this Great County are going to be breathing a collective sigh of relief.  That is also the day that starts the Obama nightmares with Rick Perry in the race because unlike others he has already gone toe to toe with Obama.  This man from the very small town of Paint Creek, Texas, isn't about to back down on what he believes is right for America -- spending less tax dollars, smaller government, and working to create jobs not end jobs with regulations.  When he says he wants to put people back to work, he means it.

Have always thought Rick Perry was good for Texas from the first time I had a chance to vote for him for Agriculture Commissioner after our transfer to Texas in the summer of 1990.  Now he is the longest serving Governor of Texas and Texas leads the Nation in job creation and sensible environmental regulations.  He is someone I would call a conservationists who understands it is a benefit to all to have clean air, streams, drinking water, and take care of the land that was given to us without needless overbearing regulations like we see from the EPA.

Very much looking forward to the August launch of Rick Perry's campaign for America to get to know Rick Perry and see his enthusiasm for not only Texas but for America.  People in New Hampshire who love to meet candidates in their own setting are going to find that Rick Perry is a natural at campaigning in small towns and villages and will come away as enthused as many of us are about Perry running for President.

Rick Perry Eyes Late August Campaign Launch

By Erin McPike and Scott Conroy - July 25, 2011

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is all but certain to launch a presidential campaign and is nearing an announcement set for the second half of August, according to sources familiar with his political team's planning. 

For months, Republican activists, donors, elected officials, and even voters have dithered about their choices in the 2012 presidential primary contest. This is especially true of grass-roots conservatives who have clamored for someone else to enter the fray, only to be disappointed by the likes of Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- all of whom declared this year they would not be candidates, in that order. 

But they may have their man in Rick Perry, a telegenic and booming political presence who boasts executive experience as the nation's longest serving governor, as well as a healthy level of support from the tea party faithful. The governor's wife, Anita, has given him her blessing for a national campaign, and now that anticipation of a Perry candidacy is reaching a fever pitch, he is poised to jump into the race next month. 

Potential donors to Perry's presidential effort met Tuesday in Austin, and those familiar with what transpired there told RealClearPolitics that key players in Perry's orbit indicated the 61-year-old Republican will announce a campaign between Aug. 15 and Aug. 31. Perry himself said on Friday that he'll at least make his intentions known within the next three to four weeks.
In the past month Perry's team has moved swiftly to put the parts in place for a campaign.
Although Perry always has had a large advance staff because of Texas' size, several low-level staffers on Capitol Hill who have experience doing advance work have departed conspicuously for the Lone Star State in recent weeks. 

While Perry has focused on determining whether he can raise the funds necessary to run a credible campaign, his strategists have begun locking down verbal commitments from vendors and other potential top staff who would fill out a campaign organization. One who was contacted about a senior staff position was told, "This is a 99 percent sure thing." Another said he was told, "He is 100 percent in." That wouldn't seem to leave much margin of error, but a third vendor who was approached said that while Perry's political circle is lining up a staff, they are doing so without knowing what Perry's final call will be. 

Meanwhile, Perry has traveled to California twice recently to meet with potential GOP donors, and his team has organized another big meeting for conservative contributors this Thursday in Austin to follow on last week's efforts there. 

Sources steeped in Texas politics also told RCP that Perry has made follow-up calls to many of his own state's biggest donors to inform them that he is running so he can confirm the level of financial commitment he can count on from them. That may be to determine what his overall funding will look like in the early stages of a campaign so he can figure out how to structure his organization -- and have a strong one in place by the time he announces. 

Perry also has begun to prime the press in the first two nominating states, Iowa and New Hampshire. He has communicated with his Texas-based press corps en masse, but has given few other interviews since he began exploring a presidential bid in June. He granted an exclusive interview to the Hawkeye State's largest paper, the Des Moines Register, about 10 days ago. 

And over the weekend he phoned the dean of the New Hampshire political press, John DiStaso of the New Hampshire Union Leader. 

In his conversation with DiStaso, Perry sounded very much like a man trying on the idea of New Hampshire's famous "retail" politics. He said that if he does make the race, he'd "absolutely" engage in the one-on-one campaigning that Granite Staters famously demand of candidates. Perry said he'd done that kind of thing earlier in his political career -- and enjoyed it immensely. 

Excerpt:  Read More about Governor Perry getting in the race at Real Clear Politics