Posted on 05/01/2013 5:34:30 AM PDT by Josh Painter
A group organized as The Tea Party Leadership Fund is trying to draft former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to run for the U.S. Senate in 2014. The fund claims that the former Fox News analyst would be favored to unseat incumbent Mark Begich (D-AK), whose polling numbers have suffered recently. But the organization has not even discussed its effort with Gov. Palin, and she has never expressed any real desire to be a U.S. Senator.
The fund's Niger Innis says the interest of Tea Party members in a Palin run, however, is clear.Other Tea Party groups caution that it would be more prudent to measure the governor's interest in challenging Begich for his Senate seat before launching a major draft campaign."We didn't know that [the draft] was going to catch fire to the degree that it has. And what that tells us is that this is just the beginning," he says. "It's gone viral."
"I absolutely love her and I think she's a breath of fresh air," Amy Kremer, head of Tea Party Express, tells Whispers. "But until she says that she's going to put her name in... we're not going to go out there and advocate for her to get in the race."While the jury is still out on how badly Romney wanted to be president -- he campaigned for the office virtually non stop for five years -- Phillips does have a point. Ask any Fred Thompson supporter about how well efforts to persuade the actor and former Senator to run for president worked out in 2007-2008. Thompson, a solid Reagan conservative with a good Senate record, was at best a reluctant presidential candidate.Judson Phillips at Tea Party Nation says the 2012 presidential election provided an important lesson about why drafting candidates is a bad idea. "One of the things we learned is that apparently Mitt Romney didn't really want to be president," he said. "The last thing the GOP needs is to put candidates who don't want it."
Long time Palin supporter Ron Devito, New York State Coordinator of American Grizzlies United/Organize 4 Palin and editor/publisher of US for Palin, wrote in February about the governor's competitive showing in a Harper Polling survey conducted January 29-30.
We don’t know if Gov. Palin will run for this Senate seat, but these numbers do suggest that a Palin campaign for any elective office would need a prior program to improve her favorable/likeability numbers among likely voters. Gov. Palin has gotten a bum rap in the mainstream media and likely voters right now believe the distorted version of her record. Complicating matters, Gov. Parnell’s repeated bids to scuttle Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share (ACES) and to monkeywrench the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) are gaining traction now that he has a contingent of like-minded Republicans on his side.There are other unanswered questions as well. What is the story behind The Tea Party Leadership Fund? Why did this group decide to draft Gov. Palin for an office that she may well not be interested in pursuing? Why didn't it even bother to ask her first?[...]
Would Gov. Palin run for Senate? Doing so would likely scuttle any Palin 2016 Presidential run, if she were to run and win. Running for Senate and serving two out of the six years would not likely go over very well, though other Senators have done just that. They got away with it, but there is a double-standard where Gov. Palin is concerned and that would spawn a whole new “quitter” meme. But, running for and winning the Senate seat would line Gov. Palin up perfectly for a 2020 Presidential run, and she would be going into it having experience in a federal office. But, running for the office would restrict the freedom Gov. Palin has now and she would be in the middle of the establishment she is trying so hard to defeat.
A visit to the organization's website reveals little about it. The "About" page doesn't list the names of the principals behind it. But the group is organized as a leadership PAC, so OpenSecrets.org has filled in some of the blanks.
The Washington DC-based group reported receipts of $1,171,143 in 2012 and spent $951,097 of it, leaving a balance of $220,047 cash on hand at the end of the year after independent expenditures of $154,172. It dispersed $52,000 to mostly conservative congressional candidates, including Allen West and Mia Love for the House and Jeff Flake and George Allen for the Senate.
The organization's treasurer is listed as Dan Backer, a campaign finance and political law attorney with offices in the nation's capitol. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Backer Esq. is also a member of the American League of Lobbyists, but that is not unusual for a lawyer in the political legal consultancy business.
It's also not clear exactly what Tea Party connections this group has. I'm not familiar with any grass roots rallies it has sponsored, and it appears to be organized from the top down, not from the bottom up. Anyone can start up a PAC by filing the papers with the SEC incorporating the words "Tea Party" in the name of the organization. It can promote the conservative values of everyday Americans and donate to candidates who share those values, but does all that truly make it a Tea Party organization? I believe that real Tea Party groups should have many real connections to the rank and file. Organizing local and national rallies and other public events is evidence of such connections. Washington political consultants, alas, rarely have them, and when they do, they are established after the group has made its mark on the grassroots political landscape.
As for the PAC's motivation behind its attempt to draft Sarah Palin for the U.S. Senate, all we know is in the blurb on it's "Sign The Petition" page, which of course also serves as a data collection mechanism.
"Tea Party Americans know that Sarah Palin is a fighter who will stand up to Harry Reid and his pals in the Senate to protect our Constitution on issues like amnesty, gun control, and our nation's crushing debt. We also know that, with Sarah in the Senate, conservatives across America can rest a little easier at night knowing that she's at the watch. That's why it's so important that you join with us in signing our petition to draft Sarah Palin for Alaska's U.S. Senate seat."I'm skeptical of this draft campaign. If Gov. Palin decides she wants to pursue a seat in the U.S. Senate, or, for that matter, a 2016 run for the presidency, we will hear about it from her first. I dismiss all arguments that she will run for public office if only enough people try to persuade her to do it. That train left the station in early October of 2011 when she told Mark Levin and his listeners that she would not run for president in the 2012 election cycle. And really, since the Tea Party rally in Indianola, Iowa the previous month, the governor has had a pretty good indication of how much her supporters have wanted her to run for president. Despite all that, she chose not to jump into the race. She has repeatedly tried to remind them that she doesn't have to hold elective office to make a difference, and the success of the candidates she backed in 2012 makes her point solidly.
I'll save my contributions for the governor's own political action committee, SarahPac, and I urge anyone willing to listen to my advice to do likewise. I will also take a pass on signing the group's petition so it can collect my data and hit me up for donations. I'm the last person who could speak for the governor, mind you, but Sarah Palin doesn't have to be "drafted" for anything. She has the political savvy and indomitable spirit to pursue that which she seeks on her own, thank you very much.
- JP
As I said yesterday I’d love to see it. But in all seriousness, I do NOT want to see her run under the GOP banner. If she runs, she should cut all GOP ties and run as an Indy. That way people can support her without the GOP stigma. If the TEA people back her, then its no different than any PAC backing any Candidate and the left cannot scare moderate Indys that she is a ‘TEA’ candidate,
Had the TEA party not allowed itself to be co-opted by the GOP, I’d think differently.
In short, As an Indy in the truest form, ANYONE that supports and believes in her can do so without the baggage of the old ways to stop them.
Since the GOP and a wing of the TEA Party has turned on conservatism and conservatism is now so riddled with psuedocons, I think it’s the best route. Stick to solid traditional conservative values and leave the crap behind.
Oh perhaps I misinterpreted.
Do you support Palin?
Link to that poll?
As for favorability numbers generally, system pollsters like Luntz think any comprehensively conservative candidate is at a disadvantage. The solution if course is to just quit trying to run our people and give our country over to the Marxists.
As for the reason for the allegedly low level of interest in Palin, in this poll of which you speak, it is purely a matter of speculation until and unless the data includes well structured analysis of the same. My own, unscientific polling here in Illinois suggests the supposed quitting issue has close to zero significance among voters. Everybody I’ve spoken to about it gets that it was the right thing for her to do under the circumstances. What people are bamboozled about, if anything, is her intelligence, and that largely due to the SNL-style propaganda used against her. A deliberate campaign of “re-information” could counteract that “dis-information,” if she were to jump in with both feet and go for it.
It's Public Policy, but they were one of the most accurate pollsters of 2012.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/02/08/alaska-poll-sen-begich-popular-palin-unpopular/
And Begich leads a bevy of likely Republican challengers. He has a big, big lead — 54-38 percent — over former Gov. and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
There are lots of polls showing the same problem for Palin. She's not popular in her home state right now. Period.
My own, unscientific polling here in Illinois suggests the supposed quitting issue has close to zero significance among voters.
Why in the heck would your unscientific polling in Illinois have any bearing on what people in Alaska think. Palin quit her job as Governor. That did a lot of damage to her. Poll after poll after poll shows her diminished popularity. I doubt she could win an election in her home state at this point. It is what it is.
Palin made some terrible mistakes and missteps after the 2008 election. She's young, if she wants to run for office she has time to rehabilitate herself politically and run for something. My guess is if she runs for anything, it would be President. I just can't see her being happy stuck in the House or Senate. I think she wants a bigger voice which is probably why she will stick with media.
Why my unscientific poll in illinois? Because that’s all I got. Someday, when we visit Alaska to see the northern lights, I will continue my “poll” in Alaska. Until then, I’m dependent on polls created by firms motivated by paying customers who don’t share my perspective. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying the numbers aren’t true. I’m just questioning the premise that her strategic retreat has anything to do with it. Could be all kinds of reasons for a particular result. I have my own theories. But what I am saying is I have yet to see empirical evidence that, outside our little echo chamber here, any real quantity of voters, Alaskan or otherwise, are really troubled by her early departure from office. My own inquiries suggest that most low info voters, of whom there are many in my personal acquaintane, have only those ideas about Palin that were put there by the comedians they watch, and those misconceptions are as fragile as frost on a summer morning, and will evaporate during a well run campaign.
I think the evidence is pretty clear by her approval ratings that bailing out on her job as Governor wasn't too popular. But fine, we can put that aside. For whatever reason, her poll numbers stink in her home state of Alaska. Pretty much every poll shows the same. I don't think she could currently win a statewide election there. I also don't think she'd want to run for Senate anyway.
This country is headed in the wrong direction fast. Eventually a majority might shake their way out of the Obama/Reality TV fog and start paying attention. I suspect Palin will be making a significant positive impact by promoting solid conservative candidates in Republican primaries for many years to come.
Senate is the best place for her talents. A term there and then the White House! We need her in the Senate! She has been rendered Toxic by the Leftist Media—A bimbo, a Tina Fey Fool who sees Russia from her house. The Senate could re-focus her populist image and help her state of Alaska.
GOPe engineers a fake draft Palin for Senate campaign to derail an expected 2016 run at the Presidency.
The presence of the regular PDS'ers on this thread support that idea.
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