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With his status as a newly minted front-runner in the nation's first voting state cemented by recent polls, Rick Perry has now put together a formidable Iowa campaign team to match the early momentum he has generated there.

Veteran Republican strategist Bob Haus has signed on with the Perry team, RealClearPolitics has learned, and will provide the Texas governor with overall strategic direction and messaging support leading into the Iowa caucuses early next year.

Though he will forgo a salary to serve as an unpaid volunteer, Haus is a deeply experienced and well-respected veteran of Iowa politics who has held prominent positions on three previous presidential campaigns.

“Bob Haus is one of the best Republican strategists in the Midwest,” Tim Albrecht, the communications director for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, told RCP. “He's smart, has a lightning-quick wit, and knows how to run winning campaigns.”

Joining Haus on Perry’s Iowa team will be his wife, Ruth, who worked in the office of intergovernmental affairs in the George H.W. Bush White House and went on to become the deputy executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee and deputy political director of the Republican National Committee.

Ruth Haus was also the deputy campaign manager for Steve Forbes’ 2000 run. She will assume the title of senior consultant on the Perry campaign.

Earlier on Thursday, the Des Moines Register reported that Republican operative Matt Gronewald was leaving his position as executive director of the Iowa GOP to join the Perry team.

Gronewald, who was previously the Iowa director for Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s political action committee, will serve as Perry’s Iowa state director.

Perry will make his second trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate this weekend and is slated to speak Saturday at the Polk County Republican summer picnic, a fundraiser in Des Moines.

Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who may soon enter the presidential race, will also speak at the event, along with declared candidates Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter.