AMES, IOWA — Texas Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to speak first — before Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann — at the sold-out Lincoln Day Dinner in Waterloo, Iowa, Sunday evening, according to event organizers.
More than 250 people bought tickets to the dinner after Perry and Bachmann decided this week to attend, according to Judd Saul, spokesman for the Black Hawk County Republicans, the event’s host.
After the $30 dinner tickets sold out, the county GOP began selling $20 attendance-only tickets. In any given year, the dinner typically attracts roughly 100 people and a few local reporters, Saul said. At least 80 news organizations have requested credentials to this year’s event.
Saul described the buffet dinner as “not super-formal.”
“It’s just meat and potatoes,” he said. “That’s Iowa.”
Bachmann wasn’t planning to attend the dinner in her hometown of Waterloo until Perry, who is expected to enter the Republican presidential race this weekend, announced he would attend.
