Texas Gov. Rick Perry is set to announce his presidential candidacy Saturday. And Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King isn’t happy that he’s doing it the same day as the Iowa Straw Poll, detracting attention from it, The Hill reports.
“Rick Perry has strategically decided he’s going to try to step on the Straw Poll by making his announcement concurrent with the Straw Poll itself. . . . His effort is to diminish the Straw Poll, and if you diminish the Straw Poll, you diminish the Iowa caucus,” King told The Hill Thursday. “Iowans understand this. Does he think we’re a bunch of country bumpkins?”
King said Perry’s timing will hurt him in the Iowa caucuses, likely to be scheduled in February. “The people in this state, especially the active ones that go to the caucus, they’ll remember,” he said. “They know what’s going on strategically, and they will not appreciate an effort to diminish the effect of the Straw Poll.”
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