Rick Perry was courted and counseled to run for the presidency last Summer.  He didn’t jump in early, and it took national funders knocking on his door to encourage him to run at all.  Finishing the end of three terms as Governor of Texas, Perry and his wife thought it over.

Would he be the alternative to Mitt Romney the GOP was looking for?

It has been a struggle.  The national stage has seemed almost overwhelming to the experienced Governor.  After repeatedly weak performances in debates, the Houston Chronicle reports that fundraising is drying up for Perry.  Governor Rick Perry raked in somewhere between 10 and 15 million dollars at the outset of his campaign.  Could it all be gone even before Iowa?

More importantly, has Perry found national presidential politics to be less to his liking than he thought?

Here’s what the Houston Chronicle has to say:

“Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign fundraising has gone into a tailspin as a result of poor debate performances and plunging poll numbers, jeopardizing his position as the best-funded Republican presidential candidate of 2012.

Working The Ground

Perry’s associates and supporters say his campaign has redoubled its money-­raising efforts in the past week to ensure that his campaign will have enough money to survive the first three contests of the 2012 election calendar: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

But Perry’s loyal backers are running into resistance from Republican donors. One Perry fundraiser, who asked not to be named, said he received 15 RSVPs for a recent event from potential donors saying they might attend. But after a gaffe-marred Perry debate performance, none showed up.

“The debates have taken a toll,” the fundraiser said. “The national numbers have taken a toll. People see the campaign on a negative trajectory.”

For good reason. The RealClearPolitics.com average of recent national polls places Perry fourth at 9.9 percent, down from his peak of 31.8 percent on Sept. 13. More ominously, new polls in the first two states to select presidential convention delegates show Perry languishing in fifth place in Iowa and New Hampshire as fellow Texan Ron Paul rocketed to second place.

“It’s the iron rule of politics: Money follows popularity,” says Austin lobbyist Bill Miller, a Perry donor. “It goes up if you’re popular and goes down if you’re not.”

Read the entire article, and an interesting one, here.

http://blog.chron.com/rickperry/2011/11/perry-funds-dry-up-after-gaffes-and-dip-in-polls/

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Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Nov 19, 2011