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Graves swiftly jumps onto the Perry-for-president bandwagon

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 15, 2011 - Just two days after Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the Republican presidential contest, one of Missouri's members of Congress is jumping aboard.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, announced this afternoon that he's endorsing Perry (pictured here at a June fund-raising event for Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder) for president.

Graves appears to be the state's first Republican member of Congress to pick a side in the crowded GOP field -- and is definitely the first to back Perry.

Graves' action is reminscent of now-Sen. Roy Blunt's swift move in the late 1990s, as a member of Congress, to back another Texas governor seeking the White House: George W. Bush.  As a result, Blunt became a major player in Bush's congressional campaign contingent and was in the spotlight at the GOP's 2000 presidential convention in Philadelphia, where Bush was formally nominated.

Graves issued a statement in which he also took a swipe at President Barack Obama:

"I believe the next presidential election is vitally important to this country. We now know that the hope and change agenda the president ran on was nothing more than tax and regulate. Our economy and country's finances are now in peril.

"As the chairman of the small business committee, I hear from our nation's job creators every day about what they need from Washington. Consistently what they say is they need less of Washington's regulations, taxes and interference.

"It's important for Republicans to nominate someone who not only has a vision of how to create jobs, but who has done it. That's why I am endorsing Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president. Gov. Perry has led the way in Texas on creating an environment for job growth. He can articulate our vision for creating jobs, with a record to back it up."

Jo Mannies is a freelance journalist and former political reporter at St. Louis Public Radio.