Desperate times and all that.
The Perry campaign is offering supporters who submit 11 names of registered voters for the campaign to contact a chance to win prizes in a raffle. The gifts include a jogging lesson from RunTex founder Paul Carrozza and a shooting lesson from the paramilitary outfit LaRue Tactical.
Or how about a calf-roping demonstration by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst?
The campaign hopes the raffle will entice supporters to identify friends and likely Republican voters. Recruiters who put in 11 names get one chance at the prize of their choice. Put in 22 names and get two chances.
The innovation comes from an earlier incarnation of the Perry Home Headquarters program, in which the campaign paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to at least 300 recruiters who brought in the names of registered voters.
But that plan proved problematic. The Dallas Morning News discovered that some of those recruiters turned out to have criminal records or were not likely Republican voters.
The prizes idea seems bent on attracting only true-red Republicans.
“We all came up with ideas of what supporters would be interested in,” said Perry spokeswoman Catherine Frazier.
The 11 announced prizes, in addition to those above, include lunch with political guru Karl Rove, a tour of the U.S. Capitol with WallBuilders founder David Barton and a football clinic from former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.
Democratic consultant Jason Stanford thinks the idea is a hoot.
“I’m signing up all my friends and half my enemies. This is too great,” Stanford said.
Juanita‘s right there with you. Seriously, this has “gag gift” written all over it. Why anyone would think it’s more likely to draw actual Republican support than the previous half-baked idea is beyond me.
But hey, if Perry thinks this can help pump up his social networking numbers while he’s out begging for money in California, I say knock yourself out. Speaking of such things, you may recall that three months ago I counted 60,000+ Facebook fans for Bill White, while Perry – who is often lauded for his prowess in this regard – had but 36,000. Well, feast your eyes on these numbers:
Bill White – 111,306 fans
Rick Perry – 40,191 fans
Putting it another way, in the past three months Bill White has gained 51,000 fans to Rick Perry’s 4,000. I believe the proper expression here is “Boo yah!” BOR has more.
Regarding the facebook friends, the only numbers that matters is in the pools
2010 primary
Perry- 758,000
White- 516,000
Last I checked, getting more votes in the primary doesn’t make you the winner in November. Just ask Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton, for that matter.
Lunch with Karl Rove… do not make me puke!!! He violated the constitution so many times it’s sickening & should be behind bars… IMHO!!!
Kuff
I don’t understand the primary remark in regards to Hillary and Obama can you clarify? I mean Obama got stomped in Texas in 2008. My point is Tx is still a very red state and the past 2 yrs has only increased that given all of the anti DC sentiment in the country.
my point is (and trust me I think Perry is a fool) we are in a Republican state and Obama only got 45% last time. I just don’t see White getting much above that, especially given the huge anti-Dem sentiment. Perry is a smart campaigner and White’s people don’t seem to get it, it is all about economy and jobs right now. Everything else is secondary, and that is a far secondary.
I will put money down (or charity of one’s choice), that perry wins this fall. The race is over now as there are already articles about White running for Senate in 2012
John,
It’s very simple. In the 2008 Democratic primary in Texas, Clinton got 1,462,734 votes, Obama got 1,362,476 votes, and McCain got 697,767 votes. In fact, Obama’s total, which was 48% of the Democratic vote, was more than the number of votes cast by all Republicans, which was 1,362,322. And that had diddly squat to do with the outcome in November, though some people thought at the time it was a portent.
My entire point is simply that there’s no correlation between the number of primary votes a candidate gets, and the number of November votes he or she gets. I’ll stipulate that Perry is favored for re-election, but it ain’t because he got more votes in March than White did.
What? No hunting day with Cheney… ?
Kuff
totally forgot about the 2008 primary. I still get back that no Dem has won statewide in I don’t know when and we are still a R state. White won’t get much above 45%. White is already thinking Senate 2012 and he has the worst advisors known to man