A Caledonia man will trek to Des Moines on Dec. 31 to help out with Rick Perry’s campaign in an effort to help prepare for the Iowa Caucus.

Eddie Willing, a member of friends of Rick Perry, will help pass out campaign literature, do interviews, make phone calls and work at a precinct there. He'll also be bringing his four-year-old son, Riley, with him.

He’ll be blogging for Patch from the Iowa GOP Caucus on Jan. 3. He’s also been blogging about foreign policy topics on his personal blog. Willing owns Lael Development, a marketing and sales training organization.

“I’ve been a lover of politics for a very long time,” Willing said.

Willing grew up in Wisconsin, but also lived in Oregon. He was homeschooled from K-12 and also went to college.

“I was raised by a single mom who never graduated from high school,” Willing said. “I loved it when the history book came in mail. I read a lot about history and when Desert Storm started, I started collecting Desert Storm cards in 1991/92.”

That’s when he started learning about foreign policy and learned about the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In 1992 there was one guy that was extremely against NAFTA and that was Pat Buchanan, Willing said. He learned more about him in debate class and learned about the Reform Party. In 1994, Buchanan said he felt that both the Democrats and Republicans were two wings on the same bird of prey.

Ever since, Willing has been interested in politics, but he doesn’t see himself as a ‘party guy.’ Earlier this year he wrestled with the idea of who to support for the 2012 election, but he settled on backing Rick Perry after he saw his speech for a TEA Party event in 2009 in Austin.

“He’s practical and good a persuading people,” Willing said. “I was really impressed.”

Eddie will also be posting blogs on Caledonia Patch soon. If you would like to start a blog, email denise.lockwood@patch.com.