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Texas Gov. Rick Perry returns to Davenport campaign trail

It seems like old times in a new era for Texas Governor Rick Perry. “We have to overhaul Washington,” he said during a 2011 campaign stop in Bettend...

It seems like old times in a new era for Texas Governor Rick Perry.

"We have to overhaul Washington," he said during a 2011 campaign stop in Bettendorf. The then-presidential candidate  called for a part-time Congress at half the pay.

"I, for one, don't beleive the people that got us into this mess can get us out of it," he said at the time.

The rallies are long over now, but the less-is-more philosophy still resonates for the fifth-place finisher in the 2012 Iowa Caucuses.

Perry was back in Davenport on Friday to talk business during a closed-door session hosted by Americans for Prosperity.

"Shouldn't Washington be substantially less decentralized in its decision-making and allow the states to be more significantly involved?" he asked during a session with reporters.

Perry wants to keep the sizzle in local firms like Sivyer Steel Corporation. The company worries that excessive regulations will stifle its global reach. Reason enough for Sivyer's president to participate in Perry's session.

"I want him to understand that sometimes the government helps a company," said Keith Kramer, Sivyer Steel president. "And sometimes it doesn't help a company."

But Iowa Democrats haven't forgotten Rick Perry's last go-round in the Hawkeye state. They say he should leave his damaging economic policies at home in Texas.

"It seems like Governor Perry wants to take us back to the dark time of mass worker exploitation," said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Scott Brennan in a news release.

Perry says he'll finish out the year as Texas governor before deciding whether to make another presidential bid. For now, he's rallying support for Iowa Republicans.

"That competition between the states is how our country will become even stronger," he concluded.

For Gov. Perry, an Iowa homecoming with familiar themes that played out for at least one more day in the Hawkeye state.

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