Latest on Republican Candidates: Romney, Perry, Huntsman

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The Texas governor picked up a sizable jump in a national Gallup poll this week after shaking up the primary field when he entered the race two weeks ago. His August 13 announcement in South Carolina hijacked political headlines that otherwise would have been devoted that day to Michele Bachmann's narrow win over Ron Paul in the Ames straw poll in Iowa. A July Gallup survey of Republican and Republican-leaning independents showed that Perry had the potential to close in on Romney, coming in second with 18%, not far behind the former Massachusetts governor's 23%.

Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman will announce his jobs plan this Wednesday, a week before his rival for the GOP presidential nomination Mitt Romney and President Obama unveil their own competing plans to jumpstart the nation's economy. "Governor Huntsman is going to lay-out an economic agenda that would turn our economy around and allow entrepreneurs to thrive and create jobs - just as he did in Utah, where the state led the nation in job growth," Huntsman spokesman Michael Levoff said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry chastised Mitt Romney's health care plan Thursday, but said he believes the former governor of Massachusetts is beginning to see the light. "I think Mitt is finally recognizing that the Massachusetts health care plan that he passed is a huge problem for him," he told conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham in an interview.