Burka told me he thought Perry never really got the hang of raising money outside Texas. My guru on Texas politics is Paul Burka of Texas Monthly. Lloyd Bentsen entered the 1976 Democratic presidential primaries with a bulging campaign war chest and lost to a peanut farmer no one had heard of two years earlier. The nomination that year went to a former Hollywood actor with a hearing aid who thought air pollution was caused by trees. John Connally initially outspent all his competitors in the Republican nomination race of 1980, but he dropped out with only one $11 million delegate to show for his efforts. In 1996 Phil Gramm bragged at the start of his presidential campaign that he had "the most reliable friend you can have in politics, and that is ready money." He lost the Republican nomination to a 73 year-old man. But when we do, it always seems to emanate-is this my imagination?-from the Lone Star State. This is a lesson we don't see illustrated very often. Perry's unsuccessful campaign is therefore a timely lesson that while money counts for an awful lot in politics, it can't do everything. Paul Begala estimates that Perry ended up spending at least $1,477 for every vote he received in Iowa and New Hampshire. Perry had reportedly raised more than $100 million in campaign contributions since he entered the Texas governor's mansion in 2001. But Perry entered the race with one substantial asset: He was really good at raising money. God knows Rick Perry was his own worst enemy as a presidential candidate-always spoiling for a fight but never mentally agile enough to win one.
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