Ron Paul announcing 2012 bid ‘within a week’

The office is open and the staff has been hired. All that awaits U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-Texas) official entrance into the 2012 presidential race is an actual announcement.

“I’m on the verge (of making a decision),” the 75 year-old Republican said Tuesday. Paul was in Iowa to open a campaign office in Ankeny — the first he has opened nationally in conjunction with the 2012 race.

Paul anticipates he will make his decision to run “within a week. This is still in the preliminary stages.”

Though a field staff was introduced, exploratory committee and staff members — and indeed, Paul himself — emphasized nothing official had been determined. Staff said in the meantime they would gauge the support Paul has garnered at this point in the Hawkeye State.

Last week alone, Paul raised at least $1 million in fundraising.

“That’s the kind of thing that makes me humbled, but also enthusiastic that people are now coming around to believing our country is in serious trouble and you can’t continue the status quo,” he said.

Iowans have a sense of “enthusiasm” over the prospect of Paul throwing his hat into the ring, Dr. Drew Ivers, chairman of Paul’s Iowa presidential exploratory committee, said.

“I believe Ron Paul’s message is basically the hope of the Republican party,” Ivers said.

Paul, a physician, also vied for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. In 1988 he competed as the nominee of the Libertarian Party.

After hosting the media and handful of supporters at the campaign office, the Congressman traveled into the capital city to caucus with House and Senate Republicans.