Ron Paul announces South Carolina campaign chairman

{mosads}To some extent, Paul’s choice of Vasovski underscores the difficulty Paul has had attracting current elected officials and establishment Republicans to endorse or head his campaign operations. Other than his son Rand, who represents Kentucky in the Senate, the only federal officeholders to endorse the Texas congressman are Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.).

But what Vasovski might lack in campaign experience, he makes up for in ideological alignment: According to his campaign website, the doctor invested his retirement savings in American Eagle gold coins to signal his solidarity with Paul’s call to return to the gold standard.

Nor have endorsements necessarily translated into traditional success at the polls: Mitt Romney, who counts more than 30 federal officeholders as endorsers, leads South Carolina with 25 percent of GOP voters, according to a Time magazine poll released Wednesday. But Herman Cain, who has no major endorsements, trails by just 2 percentage points, while Paul rounds out the top three with 12 percent of those surveyed.