Rick Perry ad in Iowa touts his background as Washington outsider

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correpondent

Texas Governor Rick Perry is playing up his status as a “Washington outsider” in a new TV ad released today, which will air on broadcast and cable TV in Iowa.

The ad flashes a picture of the four current or former members of Congress running against Perry in the Republican presidential race: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Texas Representative Ron Paul, and Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann.

“If Washington’s the problem, why trust a congressman to fix it?” the announcer says. The announcer says Perry’s opponents have spent a combined 63 years in Congress “leaving us with debt, earmarks, and bailouts.”

(For those keeping score, that would be 22 years for Paul, 20 for Gingrich, 16 for Santorum, and five for Bachmann.)

“Congressmen get $174,000 a year and you get the bill,” the ad states. The ad then flashes to an image of Perry saying he will advocate for a part-time Congress, with half the pay and half the staff.

With a week to go before the Iowa caucuses, Perry faces an uphill battle. While he has been campaigning heavily in Iowa, recent polling has put him in fourth place there, behind Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney.