Texas Governor Rick Perry has been trying to regain the momentum that his campaign first captured upon entering the race in August, in recent weeks Mr. Perry has increased his attacks on the other Republican candidates in the race, categorizing them as “Washington insiders.”
Mr. Perry has consistently called himself a “Washington outsider,” because he is one of the only candidates who has not served in either chambers of Congress over the last ten years.
Speaking Tuesday, during an appearance on Fox News, Mr. Perry reiterated his stance as a “Washington outsider,” touting his record of job creation in Texas. The Texas Republican focused his attacks on Mr. Santorum, who according to a recent Des Moines Register poll, is surging in popularity among likely Iowa caucus goers.
“Here we are in Iowa where we love pork, but we don’t like pork in Washington D.C. This is an individual whose running as a fiscal conservative, but the fact is he voted eight times to raise the debt ceiling,” said Mr. Perry regarding Mr. Santorum’s senatorial record. “He’s an earmark king, whether it was the Montana Sheep Institute or the Teapot Musuem in one of the Carolinas or whether it was the rain forest in Iowa, he voted for all of these spending bills.”
The Texas governor also pointed to his own record of job creation in Texas, where he helped create over 1 million jobs during his ten years in office. According to Fox News, since June 2009, Texas has accounted for a third of all jobs created in the U.S.
Mr. Perry is hoping that his last minute slams against the surging Mr. Santorum will help deter Iowans from voting for him.
One of the advantages that Mr. Santorum has, is that he committed his campaign to Iowa throughout the campaign season, and as Iowa voters hear speeches from their neighbors at the various caucuses, they may be convinced to vote for the man who visited all 99 counties in Iowa before any other candidate did.
Regardless of the results though, Mr. Perry is committed to staying in the race, and believes that he has the best fundraising ability of all the candidates going forward.
“When you look at the other candidates there’s not anybody that we’re talking about here that has a better ground game, whose got the ability to raise national money, who has the ability to win and take it to Barack Obama,” said Mr. Perry. “I just treat it like another day. This is a marathon, this is the first step in many more steps to go in this process. I’m not going to come in dead last, we’re here to win and we’re here to win the presidency of the United States.”
