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
I have all the respect and love in the world for Sarah, but the country is too far gone for her to help it now.
Didn’t she relocate, making her state of residence Arizona?
Could she even win in Alaska at this point? Bailing on her job as governor and then asking the people for a new gig as Senator?
The Senate is too low. Go for President or don’t run.
This is a scam. It is an Establishment GOP parlor trick designed to try and funnel money away from SarahPAC.
Best,
Chris
This is a stupid comment. The purpose of a draft movement is to convince a person to run for office...even if the person is initially unwilling. If they've already decided to run there's no need to 'draft' them!
Bump!
Time to start giving us some sort of sign, governor.
>> Could she even win in Alaska at this point? Bailing on her job as governor and then asking the people for a new gig as Senator?
That’s a good question. You can be sure the GOP-E would position someone against her at the primary level. Based on the Murkowski/Miller fiasco, I’m not sure she’d even clear the primary, let alone win the general election.
Mind you, I’m not ripping on Palin; it’s just an opinion based on history and observable facts.
The GOPe machine will never let her run.
Oops, typo in the post. Should be FEC instead of SEC. Southestern Conference on my mind. Also lack of sleep, as in up all night ;-)
But previous draft attempts have failed to convince her to run, so why should this one (which is apparently run by the sort of Beltway types she despises) convince her?
Not officially. She owns property in both states and spends time in both. But there’s been no evidence that she has moved her voter registration to AZ or made any effort to make it her official state of residence. From all indications, Alaska is still her home state and Wasilla her primary residence.
Haha.
I am a HUGE Palin fan, but that photo makes me laugh out loud.
That is awful. :D
I think the shading which was introduced did something to the photo.
Go Palin!
I doubt it would take the GOP-E to engineer that. Every politician in Alaska would know if Palin is a vulnerable weak candidate, some on the Republican side would chose to run against her.
The last poll I saw had Begich crushing Palin in a hypothetical matchup. Only Joe Miller is less popular than Sarah, so neither of them would probably make good candidates right now. Politically, at least in Alaska, Palin seems to have done tremendous damage to herself by quitting her job as governor. It's just not something that is easy to recover from.
Well yes, and no.
Though I agree with you for the most part.
Palin is a special case. A large portion of America wants her to run, more than they’ve ever wanted anyone to do anything.
I’m completely serious.
Yet at the same time, she’s a private individual at the moment.
Period. Until / unless she changes that.
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