A new Super PAC with close ties to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is laying plans to spend as much as $55 million to help him win the Republican presidential nomination, a sign that outside groups are likely to play a pivotal role in the party’s selection of its candidate.

The group, Make Us Great Again, was formed in late July by a group of Texas political operatives and major Perry donors. Unlike Mr. Perry’s own campaign — which did not officially begin until two weeks later — Make Us Great Again is permitted to accept contributions of unlimited amounts to spend in support of Mr. Perry’s presidential ambitions, so long as the group does not coordinate its expenditures with Mr. Perry’s campaign.

According to a planning document distributed in recent days to some supporters, Make Us Great Again is preparing for what amounts to a full-service primary campaign, with television advertisements, direct mail and social media outreach.

Early fund-raising suggests that the new groups are relying on a handful of wealthy donors capable of writing five-, six- and even seven-figure checks. According to a study published last week by the Center for Responsive Politics, more than 80 percent of money raised by Republican-leaning Super PACs this year came from just 35 donors.

Democratic-leaning Super PACs relied on an even smaller group, with more than 80 percent of contributions coming from just 23 donors.

“What took thousands of individual donations to make significant political advertisements in 2008 can now just take one phone call,” said Spencer MacColl, the study’s author.

The 2012 race is already being widely viewed as a laboratory for political operatives, some of whom say that Super PACs founded to support individual candidates may soon become a feature of Senate and even House races if they are used successfully — and without legal headaches — by allies of the presidential candidates.

“It’s Christmas for consultants,” said one Republican operative, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the enthusiasm among fellow consultants for the groups. “People are just starting to get it. It’s completely unlimited. And it’s going to change everything.”

IN JANUARY 2008, James Bopp got laughed out of court—literally. The white-haired lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana, was appearing before a federal three-judge panel in Washington, DC, to argue that his client, a small conservative nonprofit named Citizens United, should be able to air Hillary: The Movie on on-demand TV during the Democratic presidential primaries. Citizens United had produced the film to show that Hillary Clinton was a “European socialist” and ruthless political schemer—a cross between Machiavelli and Lady Macbeth who “looks good in a pantsuit,” as Ann Coulter put it in the movie. Also featured was Kathleen Willey, who accused Bill Clinton of hugging and kissing her in the White House—and who suggested in the film that Clinton had helped hatch a plot to assassinate her cat.