Veteran political strategist Ed Rollins has been tapped to help U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann assemble her presidential campaign, according to numerous sources.
“If she runs, I’ll help her,” Rollins told CNN.
Rollins, the chief architect of President Reagan’s reelection landslide in 1984, most recently worked as the national campaign director for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008, propelling the little-known ex-governor to a first-place finish in the Iowa caucuses that year.
“We’ll try and duplicate what Huckabee did in Iowa. It’s a good act to follow,” said Rollins.
Rollins wouldn’t confirm that he’ll be running Bachmann’s campaign, but said that he’ll definitely be involved if and when the Minnesota congresswoman officially enters the fray.
An experienced political operative, the 68-year-old Rollins also briefly served as co-manager of Ross Perot’s independent campaign for the presidency in 1992.
A former amateur boxing champion whose pugnacious tenacity and blunt honesty is both admired and feared by political opponents, Rollins will be working with an experienced team of Bachmann advisors that includes Brett O’Donnell, a veteran of President Bush’s reelection campaign in 2004 and John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Bachmann’s brain trust also reportedly includes Bob Heckman, who headed one of the largest pro-Reagan political action committees in the 1980s, pollster Ed Goeas and fundraiser Tom McGill. McGill had previously worked on the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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