Texas Governor Rick Perry will open the Elko office of the Team Nevada/ Romney for President this Friday.
“I think it is absolutely great to have a man of Governor Perry’s stature,” said Nevada Assemblyman John Ellison. “It is an honor for all of Elko.”
The new office located at 2140 Idaho Street will be officially opened at 5 pm Friday.
Perry ran against Mitt Romney in the early part of the primary season but dropped out of the race this January and endorsed Romney this April. With a tenure in office to date of 11 years, 203 days, Perry is the longest continuously serving current U.S. governor, and the second longest serving current U.S. governor and the longest serving Texas governor in history.
Team Nevada was created by the Romney campaign in part to sidestepped a power struggle between establishment Republicans and libertarians who backed Ron Paul during the primaries.
After Romney bested U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas for the Republican presidential nomination defiant Paul supporters took over leadership of the Nevada Republican Party and the Clark County GOP. And they dominated the state GOP convention, electing 25 Paul supporters to the state’s 28 delegate slots going to the national convention in Tampa in August.
To get around the infighting, the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee set up the Team Nevada operation, sidelining the state and Clark County parties and taking over strategy.
The organization also hopes to close the enthusiasm gap with the Obama campaign. Although a traditionally purple state, Nevada has been leaning more and more blue since 2008 and Democrats now out number Republicans 41 to 37 percent.
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Since May, the Republican National Committee has opened three “Team Nevada” offices, one in Las Vegas, one in Henderson and one in Reno. Wiley said the GOP plans to open at least a dozen Team Nevada offices as it ramps up through August, mostly in Clark County, where 70 percent of the population lives.
But while the Democrats are growing in clark county they have all but abandoned rural Nevada. In 2010 the number of Democrats running for county offices outside of either the las Vegas or Reno metro areas could be counted on one hand and in many races it was the Independent American party candidates who came in second.
While there is very little chance that Elko would ever poll for obama or any other Democrat in 2012, the opening of the office seems to following the traditionally Republican strategy for winning statewide. run close in Las Vegas, win in Reno and crush in the rurals.
