Texas Governor Rick Perry’s prayer rally is attracting a lot of negative press, which has some moderate Republicans worried about his chances in 2012.
Iowa state representative Rep. Josh Byrnes sparked a conversation on Politico after he said, “I have had some Republicans tell me they were excited about Perry running for president until this Aug. 6 event.”
Republican strategist Alex Castellanos gave a lengthy quote to the Associated Press yesterday, criticizing Perry for hosting a prayer rally in the runup to the election.
“Perry should be trying to establish recognition as the minister of job creation. This leads him to build an identity as just a minister,” Castellanos added.
Castellanos worked for Mitt Romney during the 2008 campaign and already has an adversarial relationship with Perry. When Romney was chairman of the Republican Governors’ Association in 2006, it hired Castellanos, who was working for an independent candidate for governor against Perry.
