PerryScope: Tracking Rick Perry’s political ponderings Politics Guide

Jul 16

PerryScope: Tracking Rick Perry’s political ponderings

Tracking the actions and travels of Gov. Rick Perry as he ponders joining the Republican presidential nomination race. An annoucement is expected within a few weeks.

Is he or isn’t he?

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad says he think it’s very likely that Perry will get into the race, based on a conversation the two governors had Friday. Branstad told The Associated Press that Perry says his family is encouraging him to run. Another indication Perry is running is that he’s spent almost $1 million in state campaign funds since the beginning of the year to travel the nation as he explores formally launching a campaign.

On the trail

Perry had no known out-of-state travel last week, but he’s scheduled to go to California and Colorado later this week.

What the polls show

Perry made a solid debut in a new national from Quinnipiac University. Mitt Romney held onto his lead with the backing of 25 percent of the respondents in the survey of 2,311 voters between July 5 and July 11. Michele Bachmann was second at 14 percent, followed by the two most popular non-candidates at this point: Sarah Palin at 12 percent and Perry at 10 percent. It was the first time the Connecticut university included Perry in its poll.

The Texan that is formally in the race, Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Lake Jackson, trailed with 5 percent in the poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

An American Research Group poll of 600 likely Republican caucus goers in Iowa ranked Perry near the end of the pack with 2 percent support. Bachmann took the lead spot with 21 percent support. The telephone poll was conduted from July 5 to 11 and has a margin or error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

–John Gravois and Aman Batheja contributed to this report, which contains material from The Associated Press and The Texas Tribune.

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