Perry's 2012 campaign echoes 2010 primary race
SMU Political Science Professor Cal Jillson talks about the similarities between Gov. Rick Perry's current run for president and his 2010 primary campaign.
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.
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