Excerpt
The following is from the September 22, 2011, edition of The Hill. SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson provided expertise for this story.
September 24, 2011
By Cameron Joseph
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign shares some striking similarities with his 2010 gubernatorial primary, where he emerged the victor.
In the gubernatorial primary, he ran to the right to fend off Tea Party favorite Debra Medina and effectively painted Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) as a Washington insider — complete with the nickname “Kay Bailout” for her support of the federal bailouts of Wall Street. He also managed to undercut her argument that she was the more electable candidate in the general election.
He’s displayed similar tactics in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. . .
“Hutchison ran as the moderate, Perry as the conservative and Medina as the Tea Party candidate, with Perry trying to argue that he’s conservative enough that the Tea Partiers didn’t need their own candidate,” said Professor Calvin Jillson of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who closely followed the 2010 race. “That’s what he’s doing here.”
A source close to Perry’s campaign agreed that some dynamics of the campaigns are similar.
Read the full story.
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