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[snip] "Here’s the quotation that’s getting the most attention: “Rick Santorum is a good man. He is a good father. He is a good Catholic. But he hasn’t always been a good conservative. And I make exceptions with his vote for Sonya Sotomayor as a for instance. That is a really liberal jurist that he helped put on track to become a Supreme Court jurist back when he voted to allow her to be on the Appellate Court. I mean, she is pro-abortion, would be my estimation of that. I mean, Obama is a very liberal president and she is...

From Public Policy Polling, this is really bad news for Rick Perry -- although at this point it cannot be unexpected: Rick Perry's Presidential campaign is doing about as bad in Texas now as it is everywhere else in the country. When PPP last polled the state in September he was at 49%, leading Mitt Romney by 39 points. Now Perry's support has declined by 31 points, leaving him in 3rd place at 18%. Mitt Romney at 24% and Newt Gingrich at 23% lead the way with Rick Santorum at 15%, Ron Paul at 12%, and Buddy Roemer at 0%...

Austin to get $11.7M in sales tax revenue Austin will collect $11.7 million in sales tax revenue from the state this month for sales that took place in November, up 6.2 percent from the same period last year, according to data released by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. State sales tax revenue was $1.98 billion, up 9.5 percent compared to November 2010 sales. “Sales tax revenue continues to grow in almost all major economic categories and revenue has now increased for 21 consecutive months,” Combs said. Sales taxes from retail trade and restaurant activity continue to improve and tax revenue from...

Rick Perry says he's going on to campaign in Florida's Jan. 31 Republican presidential primary - no matter how he fares in South Carolina.

Following a hearing in Richmond today, U.S. district judge John Gibney ruled against Rick Perry's challenge to the Virginia ballot rules. In his opinion, Gibney says Perry, and the other candidates who joined the challenge, waited too long to bring the suit. "They knew the rules in Virginia many months ago; the limitations on circulators affected them as soon as they began to circulate petitions," he writes. "They plaintiffs could have challenged the Virginia law at that time. Instead, they waited until after the time to gather petitions had ended and they had lost the political battle to be on...

South Carolina GOP leader Patrick Haddon, who formerly supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the 2012 presidential primary, yesterday announced his endorsement of Rick Santorum. "After looking at all the candidates and their political careers, and looking for a true conservative that has been fighting for real Republican causes, there is only one candidate that has been a consistent conservative fighting [for] family values and supporting pro-life issues," said Haddon, former chairman of the Greenville County GOP. "That is why Shelly and I are proud to endorse Senator Rick Santorum for President of the United States." Haddon's endorsement of Santorum...

It’s the Republican debate “oops” moment that just won’t die. Texas Gov. Rick Perry got a few laughs during Sunday’s Meet the Press / Facebook debate, but this time he was in on the joke. Today, Perry named all three agencies that he thinks should be eliminated without any help from Ron Paul. Watch. Commerce Energy Education

Romney 30% Gingrich 23% Santorum 19% Paul 9% Perry 5% Huntsman 4%

Three days after cancelling appearances in South Carolina and returning to Texas to “reassess” his presidential campaign, Texas Gov. Rick Perry released a statement Friday saying he will compete nationwide. "As my campaign for president moves forward, our superior organization and resources allow me to compete nationwide, where I’m confident our unmatched jobs record, conservative fiscal and social policies, and status as the only Washington outsider can win over Republican voters," Perry said in a news release announcing he had filed paperwork to be listed on primary election ballots in Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

January 5, 2012Behind Perry's Decision to Keep Running South Carolina team urged Texas governor to make a last stand. Rebecca Kaplan AUSTIN, Texas – It is rare for a politician to announce that he is reassessing his candidacy -- and then continue his campaign. But that’s just what Rick Perry decided after discussions with his family, two top aides, and a South Carolina team that saw a path forward for Perry to win the Republican nomination for president. Even some of Perry’s senior advisers were shocked when Perry tweeted a mere 12 hours after his fifth-place Iowa finish that he...

National conservative leaders are wondering who, if anyone, can stop Mitt Romney from walking off with the Republican nomination after his narrow win in Iowa and his expected comfortable victory in New Hampshire next week. The name that keeps surfacing is Rick Perry, which says a lot about the desperation that the anti-Romney forces are feeling now. [snip] Perry insiders say that the plausible course forward for the candidate is to make this a one-on-one race with Mr. Romney so that the conservative vote doesn't split in two, three or four ways. South Carolina has a history of deciding the...

After a disappointing fifth-place finish in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses, Texas Governor Rick Perry said he is going home to Texas to assess "whether there is a path forward for myself in this race." "With the voters' decision tonight in Iowa, I've decided to return to Texas, assess the results of tonight's caucus, determine whether there is a path forward for myself in this race," Perry told supporters at the end of the night. The candidate, once considered a frontrunner in the race for the GOP nomination, earned just 10 percent on Tuesday's contest with more

Must See – Rick Perry: America is Calling The Right Scoop January 3, 2012 Wow. This ad from Perry has got to be the best ad I’ve seen this political season. It spawns those deep feelings of patriotism and eagerness to fight for this country and elect a leader who will have our back in Washington. Just a dang good ad.

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, appears doomed to a fifth-place finish in Iowa. Unless he drops out, that would make South Carolina his last stand against Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney. The problem is that he might not receive an invitation to an upcoming South Carolina debate (given the debate criteria). Candidates can qualify to participate in the CNN/Southern Republican Leadership Conference debate January 19th (two days before the South Carolina primary) in one of four ways. First and second, they can place in the top four in either Iowa or New Hampshire. Third and fourth, they can qualify by averaging seven...

Influential Iowa conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats called this evening for Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry to drop their bids for the Republican presidential nomination in order to maximize Rick Santorum's chances of defeating Mitt Romney in a one-on-one matchup. "The last thing Mitt Romney wants is to go one-on-one with Rick Santorum," said Vander Plaats, who endorsed Santorum in December. "He wants to have a multiple-candidate field. So I think some of these candidates need to reassess where they're at tonight."

In a campaign speech late Tuesday night, Governor Rick Perry stated that he is "returning to Texas" to reassess whether he is going to continue running for President. The speech contained several emotional moments, in particular two moments. The first was when he read a letter from an adoring supporter who called him a "great man." The letter described a conversation that Mr. Perry had had with a soldier and how his supporter looked on in awe as he watched Governor Perry call the veteran his "Christian brother." The second was when Perry announced that he would be returning to...