The speculation began Thursday as soon as the news dropped about Newt Gingrich’s staff exodus: What does it mean for Rick Perry?
Encouraged by Republican figures still hunting for a Mitt Romney alternative with both spunk and stature, the Texas governor was already showing signs he was looking at the presidential race.
Sources close to the governor caution that he’s only considering it and that a run is far from a sure thing.
Still, his decision might now be accelerated by Gingrich’s demise.
The Perry-for-president buzz began in earnest late last month, after Perry reversed course and did not, for the first time in a year, rule out running – and it’s hit new heights now that his two longtime advisers abruptly walked off the sinking Gingrich ship.
“It means they’ll be thinking even harder down in Austin,” said longtime GOP strategist Tucker Eskew of the news that Dave Carney, a consultant with Perry for years, and Rob Johnson, who ran his campaigns for governor, were no longer attached to the former House Speaker.
The immediate question was whether Johnson and Carney, Perry’s chief political adviser, will start planning a presidential campaign for the Texan.
“There’s no way in my opinion that Governor Perry, if he ever did run, would do so without Carney leading the team,” added a friend of Perry, who asked not to be identified.
But Carney insisted that his decision was unrelated to Perry.
Asked about the growing noise surrounding a potential Perry run, Carney repeated the refrain from the governor’s team in recent days in an email to POLITICO: “Nothing has changed and the legislative session is not even over.”
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