The governor said Anita Perry, who is a nurse and whose father practiced medicine, was concerned about President Obama’s health-care reforms. “I mean we’ve got one of the finest, if not the best, health care systems in the world. She sees Obamacare as destroying that,” Perry told Halperin.
Perry also recounted a conversation he had with former president George W. Bush in July, around the time that the media began speculating about a possible Perry candidacy. “He said, ‘You’ll do what’s right,’ ” Perry recounted of his conversation with the former president and former Texas governor. “He said you don’t want to wake up when you’re 70 and go, ‘I wish I had tried that. I wish I had done that.’ ”
Part of Perry’s success in a race to which he has arrived late will depend on funding from super PACs. These entities, created after the Supreme Court case often referred to as Citizens United, are expected to play a large role in the 2012 presidential race.
The Make Us Great Again effort backing Perry has signed up a team of prominent consultants, including Sacramento-based fundraiser Tony Russo, legal counsel Cleta Mitchell and the GOP advertising firm Jamestown Associates. It has also added staff that includes executive director Scott Rials and senior adviser Barry Bennett, who are both close to top Perry adviser David Carney.
The group surfaced this week in an e-mail from former Perry chief of staff Mike Toomey and supporter Brint Ryan, who will work with Russo to lead Perry’s fundraising operation. It is one of seven super PACs that have been launched on behalf of Perry’s nascent campaign, but organizers say they expect this PAC to be easily the biggest.
The e-mail from Toomey to potential donors that went public earlier this week quoted Toomey as saying donors should “avoid any other group claiming to be ‘the’ pro-Perry independent effort.”
Another former Perry aide, Dan Shelley, has launched two super PACs – Veterans for Rick Perry and the Jobs for Vets Fund. Americans for Rick Perry, which Blakemore and Wiedemann had been involved in, has been active early in Iowa.
The new effort aims to be the second major super PAC supporting a top GOP presidential campaign. Former Massaschusetts governor Mitt Romney’s supporters have also formed a super PAC, Restore Our Future, which raised $12 million in the first half of 2012.
Karen Tumulty contributed to this story.
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