Republican Run Gains Focus as Pawlenty Says Goodbye

Waterloo, Iowa— Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in his first visit to Iowa since announcing his presidential bid, said on Sunday that he felt compelled to run because no one in the Republican field had caught fire with the public.

“This wasn’t something I felt compelled to do six months ago or even three months ago,” Perry said. He was hopeful that “one of the people in our group would explode out and take off and everybody in American could get behind them. That hasn’t happened. My wife basically said, ‘Listen, our country is in trouble and you need to do your duty.’ And that was a pretty clarion call for me.”

Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) will be speaking tonight at a fundraiser for the Black Hawk County GOP. Perry was mobbed as soon as he entered the historic Electric Ballroom. He high-fived a boy wearing an “Americans for Rick Perry” T-shirt, kissed a 100-year-old woman’s cheek and discussed rain totals with farmers.

When one man called him “Mr. President,” Perry replied, “Hey listen, I got a whole lot of asking to do before anything happens out here in Iowa.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty brought clarity to the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, leaving social conservatives Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry as the main challengers to front-runner Mitt Romney.

Mr. Perry, who is the governor of Texas, immediately presented himself as a threat to Mr. Romney in his stronghold of New Hampshire, where the former Massachusetts governor owns a home and leads in state polls. Mr. Perry campaigned there Saturday and Sunday.

Later on Sunday, Mr. Perry moved to make incursions into the home turf of Mrs. Bachmann, a three-term congresswoman from Minnesota. He stormed into Mrs. Bachmann's native town of Waterloo, Iowa, the state that will hold the nation's first nominating contest early next year, going table to table, shaking hands and hugging guests at a packed GOP dinner as loudspeakers boomed the tune, "Deep In The Heart of Texas."

Other candidates have entered with their own media boomlets, only to slip away without seriously challenging Mr. Romney's position as the leading candidate for the GOP nomination. Expectations are high for Mr. Perry, but he is untested outside of Texas.

"If Perry can execute a good launch in the first 30 days and survive the initial onslaught, he has a very good shot at the nomination," said Phil Musser, top political strategist for the now-defunct Pawlenty campaign. "These first 30 days will be make or break."

In Waterloo Sunday night, Mr. Perry told of his upbringing as a farm boy and his years as an Air Force pilot in a speech punctuated by loud applause. He promised, if elected, to slash spending, taxes and federal regulations. He said he would veto spending bills "till the ink runs dry if that's what it takes."

Local advertising executive Jim Mudd, who sat next to Mr. Perry over dinner, came away impressed. "I think Perry is a winner," he said. "Everything he says is in keeping with what we believe in the Republican Party."

Mrs. Bachmann's straw poll victory over runner-up Ron Paul established her as the front-runner in Iowa, but it was Mr. Pawlenty's third-place finish that had the most meaning.

Romney aides are hoping the contest develops into a slugging match between Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Perry for the most conservative voters, just as the fight between Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Pawlenty dispatched Mr. Pawlenty while leaving Mr. Romney unscathed. On Sunday evening here, Mr. Santorum excoriated Mr. Perry's position that he would respect New York State's right to approve gay marriage, saying "states cannot do whatever they want to do." Conservatives have also questioned Mr. Perry's executive order mandating the vaccination of 11-year-old girls against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, a move that was overturned by the Texas legislature.

Mr. Romney, who ran a private-equity firm before winning office in Massachusetts, will paint the Texan as a career politician while casting himself as the only major candidate with extensive private-sector experience. And while Romney aides say their candidate will contest Iowa, other strategists here see more reason for him to pull back and let the Minnesotan and the Texan battle it out.

That dynamic could play elsewhere, as well. If Mrs. Bachmann and Mr. Perry split the evangelical Christian vote in South Carolina, Mr. Romney could have an easier chance to win there. If the same thing happens in the panhandle of Florida, Mr. Romney could focus on the swing areas of South Florida and the area between Tampa and Orlando.

Mr. Perry made it clear he will contest all the early states, not cede some ground and play harder for others. "I intend to compete for every vote in every state," he declared Saturday night in New Hampshire. "This isn't just to campaign in a few places."

Mr. Romney isn't responding in kind. He is maintaining his focus on New Hampshire and on fund-raising. On Monday and Tuesday, he will be in New Hampshire, then fly to California, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah to raise campaign funds.

Mrs. Bachmann had said all tax revenues coming in could be directed to paying off U.S. creditors, funding the military and fully financing Social Security and Medicare. But what was left would have meant 68% cuts to virtually every other program, from the Veterans Administration to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to federal education assistance, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a fiscal think tank in Washington.

"We have to reject the new normal" of federal spending under Mr. Obama, she responded.

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace then asked her why she had written six letters asking for money from the president's stimulus plan and writing in those letters that the money for roads and bridges would create jobs in her district.