DES MOINES - With a revamped message and a significant TV presence here, Rick Perry is hoping to revive his disappointing presidential campaign with a surprise finish Tuesday.
But even as they hold out hope that Perry can find a way back into contention, some of his advisers have begun laying the groundwork to explain how the Texas governor bombed so dramatically in a race that he seemed to control for a brief period upon entering the race in August.
Continue ReadingTheir explanations for the nosedive come against the backdrop of a campaign riven by an intense, behind-the-scenes power struggle that took place largely between a group of the governor?s longtime advisers and a new cadre of consultants brought on this fall. In the end, the outsiders won out ? and ever since have marginalized Perry?s longtime chief strategist while crafting a new strategy in which the Texan has portrayed himself as a political outsider and culture warrior.
In a series of interviews with POLITICO, sources close to the campaign depict a dysfunctional operation that might be beyond saving because of what they describe as the political equivalent of malpractice by the previous regime.
?There has never been a more ineptly orchestrated, just unbelievably subpar campaign for President of the United States than this one,? said a senior Perry adviser.
Perry?s steep plunge from frontrunner to butt of jokes was chiefly the result of his own embarrassing verbal stumbles, most notably his insta-classic ?oops? moment when he couldn?t recall the names of the cabinet departments he wants to eliminate.
Yet the view of the outsiders who took over Perry?s campaign is that the candidate was set up for failure by an insular group led by Dave Carney, the governor?s longtime political guru, which thought they could run a presidential campaign like a larger version of a gubernatorial race and didn?t take the basic steps needed to professionalize the operation until the candidate was already sinking.
?They put the campaign together like all the other Perry campaigns: raise a bunch of money, don?t worry about the [media coverage], don?t worry about debates and buy the race on TV,? said a top Perry official. ?You have to be a total rube to think a race for president is the same as a race for governor.?
Because Perry had never been defeated in his career in state politics ? and came from behind to crush Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in last year?s Texas gubernatorial primary ? his Texas operation projected an air of supreme self-assurance and indifference to outside advice.
Carney, a longtime GOP strategist who worked for Bush 41?s presidential campaigns, declined to comment for this story.
?I don?t think so,? he said in response to an email asking to get his side. ?Not much good can come from process stories like this.?
In a blistering indictment, sources close to the operation describe a new team that was stunned to arrive in October and find a campaign that wasn?t executing the most rudimentary elements of a modern presidential campaign: no polling or focus groups, no opposition research book on their own candidate to prepare for attacks and debate prep sessions that were barely worth the name.
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