N.H. GOP weighs Perry run

By Shira Schoenberg

July 28, 2011

1 minute to read

New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien is among the Granite Staters who were invited to meet with Texas governor and potential presidential candidate Rick Perry in Texas next week.

O’Brien said he is interested in going to the Aug. 4 meeting, but has not made a final decision.

O’Brien said he received a call yesterday from Paul Young, a former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party inviting him to the meeting. O’Brien said Deputy House Speaker Pamela Tucker is planning to go to the Austin meeting.

The N.H. Journal – where Young is on the board of directors – first reported that Young and former congressional candidate and Republican National Committeeman Sean Mahoney are coordinating a group of New Hampshire activists to travel to Texas to meet with Perry and talk to him about the importance of New Hampshire’s first in the nation presidential primary.

O’Brien has not yet endorsed a candidate, and would not say which candidates he is considering. But he said he believes there is room for Perry to run. “The field is open for a large state governor who produced 40 percent of the jobs in this country coming out of this recession,’’ O’Brien said.

Perry has also been meeting with groups from Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee, according to Politico.

Conservative activist Kevin Smith, executive director of Cornerstone Action, was also invited to the meeting with Perry, but will not attend because of previous plans to be in New Orleans.