Rick Perry's Iowa staff has been trimmed back to just one paid staff worker while the Texas governor refocuses on South Carolina, another early state where staff has also been cut.
The lone staffer, Jamie Johnson, will remain on the job, while others on the team were to be released on Monday, according to Perry's advisers,
reports Politico.
Bob Haus, Perry's top Iowa strategist in Iowa, said the staff has been spoken to, and that he plans to continue working for the former Texas governor as an unpaid volunteer.
The Iowa staff was told last week that cutbacks were coming, but even before that, some of Perry's staff had been working for no money for some time.
Haus said the cutbacks were because of financial reasons, and Perry did not want to see the staff going without pay.
Top Perry adviser Karen Fesler, who turned her resignation letter on Monday, is jumping over to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's campaign. She also worked for Santorum in 2012.
Earlier this month,
Perry stopped paying campaign staff workers in South Carolina as well, with spokesman Lucy Nashed blaming the cutbacks on "monetary and time-related resources."
He insisted on
Fox News "America's Newsroom" last week that his campaign is not in trouble, despite his low poll numbers and the news that he has been making cuts in staff in the early voting state of Iowa.
"We'll continue to go to Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina," Perry said. "That's where the election will get decided."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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