Perry’s Paid Staff in Iowa Down to 1

Former Texas Governor and 2016 presidential candidate Rick Perry’s campaign team in Iowa has dwindled to one paid staffer.

The sole survivor of the reduction in Perry’s paid staff is Jamie Johnson, who had supervised organizing conservatives for Perry in the early primary states. Iowa strategist Bob Haus, who is repeating his 2012 role as an unpaid adviser, insisted to The Des Moines Register, “We are continuing our Iowa campaign, with several September dates planned and other dates under consideration.”

On August 3, Sam Clovis, Perry’s Iowa campaign chairman, told the Register that Perry’s Iowa campaign staff’s pay had been suspended, said Perry’s Iowa strategist Bob Haus, who remains on board in an unpaid advisory role, as he did for the former Texas governor in the 2012 election cycle.

Perry’s Iowa staff has been plagued by defections; Karen Fesler, Perry’s Iowa co-chair, returned to the staff of Rick Santorum, whom she supported in 2012; Clovis himself left Perry’s staff to join Donald Trump’s campaign last week.

Haus stubbornly fought the notion that Perry’s Iowa campaign was over, stating, “We are in the middle of a large fundraising push. We won’t know the results of that for a while, and will continue campaigning.” He added that Perry’s Iowa team will rely on volunteers, the same strategy as his staff in South Carolina. He concluded, “If we can rehire staff after the 15th, our Iowa team will get first consideration. They are a talented team, and loyal. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, we’ve seen it, and we’ll emerge.”

A new Monmouth poll of likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers found Perry polling at 1%, behind eleven other candidates.