Can Outsized Super PAC Support Save Cash-Strapped Perry Bid?
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AUSTIN (AP) — Rick Perry has raised so little money for his second-chance presidential bid that he's stopped paying his campaign staffers, the kind of cash crisis that could normally sink a candidate.
But the former Texas governor has well-funded super PACs that say they're ready to step in and keep his message afloat at least through Iowa, where Perry has spent more time than any other White House hopeful.
It's the latest sign of how influential outside groups — armed with small cadres of million-dollar donors — are reshaping presidential politics.
Perry raised only about $1 million in his first month of campaigning, a sum that isn't enough to cover his payroll. But a pair of pro-Perry outside groups each with Opportunity and Freedom in its name amassed almost $17 million over the same period.
Those groups, both super PACs, are barred by federal rules from talking directly to the candidate they support.
But it became apparent recently to Austin Barbour, the Republican operative who leads them, that their role going forward would be far more important. The groups began spending money not just on advertisements, but also on employees who can fill roles normally left to the traditional campaign.
They hired an Iowa director and deputy director, who are now building out a super PAC-run ground game in the state that will weigh in first in the presidential nominating season. Barbour said he's prepared to hire staff in other early primary states, if necessary.
"We saw in the campaign finance reports that they didn't raise as much as anyone would have liked, and we knew what that meant — that they were going to have to go lean and mean while we would need to diversify what we were doing to help the governor," Barbour said. "We're building Perry's Iowa team. There's nothing in the playbook that says we can't do that as a super PAC."
Even with so much outside help, money problems plaguing Perry's campaign this early could leave future donors — as well as potential primary voters — wondering whether Perry can survive for the long haul in the crowded a GOP field.
"It's the deterioration of the campaign and there's no pretty face, no makeup you can put on it," said Bill Miller, a Texas-based GOP strategist. "It's like a NASCAR race. He's doesn't have the pole position and now he doesn't even have a full tank of gas."
Perry's not alone in relying heavily on super PACs. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former technology executive Carly Fiorina also are leaning on outside groups to build name-recognition. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's ex-campaign manager and two other staff members recently left his financially troubled campaign to form a super PAC supporting him.
In 2012, the support of a super PAC helped former House Speaker Newt Gingrich win South Carolina's primary and continue competing for the presidency long after traditional campaign money dried up.
Word that Perry had stopped paying campaign staffers comes after he narrowly missed polling high enough to make the main event at last week's much-watched GOP debate, despite a rush of expensive national TV advertising that sought to boost his numbers and win him a place on stage.
Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed says he'll stay focused on competing in Iowa, as well as the subsequent primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Perry plans to visit South Carolina on Thursday and return to Iowa next week.
His campaign's Iowa state chairman, Sam Clovis, said Tuesday he would continue working as a volunteer — and didn't know any Iowa campaign staffers who weren't following suit.
"I know everything there is to know about running a campaign with very little money," Clovis said.
Jamie Johnson, a Perry senior campaign director in Iowa, said he'd already "gotten an offer from another campaign — and I'm staying."
Donors can give $2,700 maximum per election to campaigns, but there are no limits on what they can give to super PACs. Dallas businessmen Kelcy Warren and Darwin Deason gave a total of $11 million to the three super PACs backing Perry, even though Warren also serves as the finance chairman for Perry's official campaign.
The groups would have to wait 120 days to bring aboard anyone currently with the official Perry campaign. But Barbour said the groups have hired different people, while refusing to say how many are now on the super PAC payroll.
Barbour said he expects that Perry's remaining campaign money will be used to extensively travel in Iowa, as well as on policy development and debate preparation. Meanwhile, the super PAC will pay for pro-Perry ads. Opportunity and Freedom has spent more than $2 million so far on such messaging.
"The way the system is set up now," Barbour said, "we can support Perry in a number of ways."
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