Rick Perry consults Republicans in key primary states ahead of potential 2012 run

As he openly considers a 2012 run, Rick Perry has been personally reaching out to key Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire to gauge support for his potential GOP nomination bid.

The Texas governor has said he won't announce his 2012 decision for "weeks," but last week, he phoned Joni Scotter, an influential Republican activist in Iowa, to gauge her opinion about his potential run.

"It was just a surprise," Scotter told Politico's Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman, adding she's not sure how Perry got her phone number. "He sounded great and just asked if he should run. And I said, of course."

At the same time, the NH Journal's Shawn Millerick reports Perry has been talking with "top shelf Republican leaders" in New Hampshire in recent days about his potential presidential bid.

The phone calls come amid word that Perry operatives have been courting key political operatives in early primary states, including South Carolina. Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina GOP chair who had been working for Newt Gingrich, tells USA Today that he was contacted by Perry associates "about an hour" after he resigned from the former House speaker's presidential campaign last month.

As The Ticket previously reported, a group aiming to draft Perry into the GOP primary raised $400,000 in three weeks and is looking to reserve space at next month's Iowa Straw Poll--though it's unclear if Perry's name could be placed on the ballot. Meanwhile, Perry is set to schmooze with some of the party's biggest donors at an Aspen retreat next week sponsored by the Republican Governors Association, which he currently chairs.

Perry has been cagey about when he'll announce his decision about the race. A top adviser to the Texas governor said last month there's a chance Perry might wait until the fall to decide about a presidential run—though he called that scenario unlikely.

(Photo of Perry: Gregory Bull/AP)