Rick Perry Plans to Attend GOP Presidential Debate: Spokesperson

Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to attend the GOP presidential debate tomorrow after all.

Mark Miner, Perry's spokesman, said in a one-line email to USA Today's Jackie Kucinich Tuesday, that Perry plans to attend the GOP presidential debate. Previously, the Texas governor had said he wasn't sure if he would attend or not because of the raging wildfires plaguing Texas amid a prolonged drought.

Perry had said early Tuesday in an appearance on CBS' The Early Show that his focus was on the latest fires.

That's a fluid situation at the moment, so again I go back to we're going to be taking care of the folks here, the governor said on CBS. I got a great team of people to work with. That's one of the things I've been blessed with for 10 years.

But now Perry's spokesman says he will attend.

The Texas governor has surged to the top of some polls weeks after announcing his bid for the Republican party's presidential nomination. He's leading previous Republican front runner Mitt Romney in the latest Gallup poll, yet he's not appeared in a GOP presidential debate yet.

If Perry does participate in tomorrow's debate, it will be his first since announcing his bid for office last month.