The Midday Brief: Oct. 24, 2011

Your afternoon reading:

• "Television ads supporting Rick Perry's presidential campaign are scheduled to start running in Iowa on Tuesday, multiple sources familiar with the ad buy told POLITICO." — Rick Perry ads start Tuesday in Iowa, Politico

• "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's GOP presidential campaign is pushing back against a Los Angeles Times article that could prove troublesome. … The Romney campaign was quick to react to the article, and to criticize Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, who succeeded Romney." — Romney blames successor for illegal immigrant health care, CNN

• "That Perry would expand beyond his tight-knit political circle is illuminating and suggests that he recognizes that the first two months of his campaign have been something short of stellar.  That he brought in the team that led the governor of Florida to victory is even more telling." — Rick Perry=Rick Scott?, The Washington Post

New in The Texas Tribune:

• "Joe Allbaugh, who ran George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign and later led FEMA, will make a return to big-league politics as a senior adviser to Rick Perry, sources tell The Texas Tribune. Dave Carney, who has been Perry's top political adviser for well over a decade, will remain a consultant to the campaign, but will share his duties with Allbaugh and others, the sources said."
  

• "Proposed cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's budget could shutter the Kika de la Garza Subtropical Agricultural Research Center, where researchers work to ensure the safety of products that cross from Mexico to the U.S." — Budget Cuts Threaten Food Safety Research Center

• "Since the passage of sweeping medical lawsuit reforms in 2003, liability insurance rates have plummeted, doctors have flocked to our state in record numbers and nursing homes and hospitals are again operational. That's good for patients — and good for Texas." — Guest Column: Better Care, Thanks to Tort Reform

• "The sweeping medical lawsuit reforms of 2003 had two demonstrable effects: Doctors, hospitals and malpractice insurers got richer; and many contingent fee lawyers were put out of business. Which was exactly what proponents of the reforms wanted." — Guest Column: No Better Care, Thanks to Tort Reform