Perry, Romney look beyond early-voting states

By Kasie Hunt

Associated Press

Published: Saturday, Sept. 24 2011 12:10 p.m. MDT

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Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, arrive at the Republican Leadership Conference at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011.

Carlos Osorio, Associated Press

Summary

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are the only two Republican presidential candidates who can afford to spend their time and money in states that aren't at the top of the 2012 primary calendar.

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are the only two Republican presidential candidates who can afford to spend their time and money in states that aren't at the top of the 2012 primary calendar.

That helps explain their appearances Saturday in Michigan, where GOP voters will have their say next year, but only after Iowa, New Hampshire and several other states that second-tier contenders must win to survive.

Michigan's House speaker, Jase Bolger, says "it's really about these two up here."

Perry and Romney are on a resort island in the Great Lakes for speeches Saturday at a Republican gathering.

While Romney and Perry played to the GOP faithful in Michigan, their rivals were scattered about.

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