The Midday Brief: Aug. 22, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "The Republican primary schedule is still in flux, and there's time for states to try power plays that will move the map around. Based on the moves so far, though—California moving from February to June, Florida punting its timing decision to an independent committee—there will be nothing like of 2008's 22-state Super Tuesday to sort of the field. Fewer states will go winner-take-all and award all of their delegates to the candidate who carries the popular vote." — Next Up: The Endless Primary, Slate

• "The battle for the South between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry intensified Monday." — Perry, Romney Step Up Fight for Southern States, The Wall Street Journal

• "No candidate has ever presided over a political operation so skeptical about the effectiveness of basic campaign tools and so committed to using social-science methods to rigorously test them." — Rick Perry’s Scientific Campaign Method, The New York Times

• "Is there likely to be interest in their campaigns among crucial G.O.P. constituencies? In order to consider this, we first need to think about where the current Republican candidates stand. Where are the strengths in the field, and where are the gaps that one of these candidates might hope to fill?" — There’s Room for More G.O.P. Candidates, FiveThirtyEight

• "Mitt Romney, who has the most to lose from Perry’s candidacy, has kept silent. He has barely even mentioned Perry by name since the Texas governor entered the race. It’s part of a hands-off strategy that underscores Romney’s limited options for diminishing Perry’s appeal with a deeply conservative Republican primary electorate." — Romney Playing Hands Off When It Comes to Rick Perry, National Journal

• "Aides to Dewhurst … have suggested privately that he won't actively campaign until September. Even then, it's not clear he'll show up at the sorts of events that are being sponsored with some regularity by tea party groups, county Republican party organizations and Republican women's clubs. We're hearing reports, but haven't been able to verify, that at some recent events, sponsors have highlighted Dewhurst's absence with an empty chair and name card at the candidates' table." — Some tea party activists rib Dewhurst for no-shows, Trail Blazers

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "The restricted club that is the Texas Senate will be invaded by noisy conservative voters and activists next year if senators have to choose a new leader from their own ranks, reprising the 2011 contretemps over the choice for speaker of the House." — Inside or Out: Who'll Run the Texas Senate?

• "The president of Prairie View A&M University on higher ed budget cuts, the role of historically black colleges in Texas and why he'll soon be back in the classroom teaching the largest class on campus." — George C. Wright: The TT Interview