Rick Perry seeks a fresh start in Iowa

Iowa is starting to look more like a must-win for Rick Perry, and his GOP presidential campaign is picking up the pace in the leadoff caucus state.

Hawkeye State voters are already seeing something of the Perry reboot -- his “I’m a doer, not a talker” ad launched there this week. It’ll now be joined on the airwaves by another positive spot from an unaffiliated “super PAC,” Make Us Great Again.

Another version of the biographical ad, which calls him a “solid conservative,” will run in South Carolina as well.

The Texas governor is spending much of this week in Iowa, starting with a speech this morning at a forum hosted by the National Assn. of Manufacturers, and a town hall meeting later in the day.

He just added a Thursday town hall meeting in Johnston before Friday’s speech at the Iowa Republican Party’s Ronald Reagan Dinner.

Perry was tied for fifth in a Des Moines Register poll released Saturday, 16 points behind surprise frontrunner Herman Cain.

He didn’t even place among the top candidates among self-identified tea party supporters, a group with whom Cain held the lead with 27%, or born-again Christians, with whom Cain was the top pick with 26% support.

But the recent sexual-harassment controversy surrounding Cain, and the fact that Perry boasts the biggest campaign war chest among the Republican hopefuls, means the Texas governor still has the resources to back a rebound effort.