Rick Perry stops paying South Carolina staffers. Is he strapped for cash?
The presidential聽campaign聽of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has stopped聽paying聽its聽staff聽in South Carolina, according to media reports.
The move to suspend the pay for his campaign staff has prompted speculation that the campaign may be experiencing funding woes.聽But Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed downplayed the move in a statement, "tough decisions have to be made in respect to both monetary and time-related resources."
"Governor聽Perry聽remains committed to competing in the early states and will continue to have a strong presence in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina," Ms. Nashed said. "The Governor is also looking forward to his trips to South Carolina聽this Thursday聽and to Iowa next week."
It is not clear if the pay suspensions, on Monday by the National Journal, would be permanent or just temporary.聽In the mean time, some of Mr. Perry's South Carolina staffers said they would continue to work as volunteers, optimistic that the former governor's financial situation will improve.
"As far as I know, we still have a plan and we're still on track," said Sam Clovis, the campaign's Iowa state chairman.
Is he short on cash? According to reports, Perry raised only around $1 million聽in the second quarter, a far cry from GOP dominants like former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
In addition to the more than $1 million raised directly by the Perry campaign, Perry-supporting super PACs,聽raised $18 million.
Perry announced his second bid for the presidency in June and pundits predicted an uphill slog although he appears stronger than in 2012.
鈥淗e starts off behind the starting line; he鈥檚 got a lot to prove,鈥� Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas in Austin told 海角大神聽in June. But 鈥淚 can say that he鈥檚 worked pretty assiduously to try to get up to speed on the issues this time. He shows no sign of quit, and he鈥檚 been able to marshal his financial supporters.鈥�
Still, Mr. Buchanan added, 鈥渋t鈥檚 going to be an uphill slog.鈥�
Besides his fundraising concerns, Perry was demoted to the second-tier stage at the GOP's first debate last Thursday because his polling numbers were so low.
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
