Sources: Rick Perry to Take Over Governors Group

The Republican Governors Association may have a new chairman. Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be chosen for the position when the RGA meets next week in San Diego, GOP sources tell Politico.

The current chairman and vice chairman of the RGA, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, are both considering a run at the presidency in 2012.

Perry has been talked about as a presidential candidate as well. But his new position represents the first tangible sign that he’s not going for the commander-in-chief job. “It would be nearly impossible to raise money for the committee and help direct the [2011] gubernatorial contests in Louisiana, Mississippi and Kentucky while simultaneously running for president,” Politico states.

Perry served as head of the RGA once before, in 2008, and was closely involved with the committee before then, when Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue headed it.