Vulnerable GOPs want Palin to stay home

Vulnerable GOPs want Palin to stay home
By Molly K. Hooper
Posted: 07/09/09 08:00 PM [ET]
Republicans facing tough elections in 2010 don’t want Sarah Palin campaigning with them.

Though the soon-to-be-former Alaska governor is seen as popular with the conservative grass roots, several Republicans said she’d help them by staying home in Wasilla.

Several of these Republicans hail from districts or states carried in 2008 by President Obama, a frequent target of Palin’s criticism. Republicans must keep these districts and win others where Obama is popular if they are to gain seats next year.

GOP Rep. Lee Terry (Neb.), who squeaked out a victory despite his district’s overwhelming turnout for Obama, said he’d rather have House colleagues campaign for him than Palin.

“There’s others that I would have come in and campaign and most of them would be my colleagues in the House,” Terry said.

Rep. Frank Wolf, a Republican from Northern Virginia, which is increasingly becoming Democratic territory, offered caution when asked whether he’d welcome a Palin fundraiser.

“I don’t generally need people from outside my district to do a fundraiser,” Wolf said.

Several other lawmakers indicated a wariness about accepting help from Palin, but did not want to criticize the GOP’s vice presidential candidate from last year. They said Palin could hurt them by firing up Democrats.

An unnamed GOP lawmaker representing a district that Obama carried in 2008 told The Hill that if Palin came into his district, his opponent would “probably be doing a dance of joy.”

The head of the House Democrats’ campaign arm said he’d welcome Palin’s involvement in the 2010 campaign.

“We hope that she will be part of the future debate on the direction of the country,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

Several Republicans running for statewide office over the next two years in areas where Obama is popular suggested Palin could hurt the party’s candidates.

Centrist Republican Rep. Mike Castle (Del.) said that Palin’s polarizing views, coupled with her surprise decision to resign with 18 months left in her term, would make it difficult to ask for her help.

“I think the combination of her being very conservative and the fact that what she did has concerned some of us would mean that people may be hesitant about having her in [to campaign],” said Castle, who is considering a bid for Senate in 2010.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R), who is running to become Michigan’s governor in 2010, said he needs a better explanation of why Palin suddenly quit her job before he’d want her campaigning with him in Michigan.

“I’ve thought about it but I don’t have an answer,” Hoekstra said. Before making a call on a Palin visit, he said, “I need a better understanding of why she quit. Why quit with a year and a half to go?”

Earlier this week, New Jersey’s state GOP chairman said that organizers “don’t have any plans” to have Palin stump on behalf of candidate Chris Christie. New Jersey, which overwhelmingly supported Obama in 2008, will elect a governor this fall, and polls show Christie in the lead.

For some House members, it could be tough to turn down Palin, who may be capable of raking in money for Republicans. Palin often drew much larger crowds in the fall of 2008 than did Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the top of the GOP ticket.

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), a top Democratic target who has survived two tough elections, took a tempered stance on whether he’d welcome help from Palin.

“How could I say this? I’d say that we have a list of people that we would like to invite and we’re looking at that list. We’ve made some calls to people. I think in my district you really have to look at who can help raise the most money and that’s what it’s really all about,” he said.

Senate hopeful Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who faces a tough election in Missouri, said he wants Palin to come to his state.

“I think she would be helpful,” he said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) also said he’d welcome a Palin visit.

“The answer is, if she can raise a lot of money for me, yes,” Grassley told reporters Tuesday. Grassley, who is up for reelection in 2010, said he remembers Palin having a big Iowa following during the 2008 campaign.

“[A]t three events I spent with her in Iowa during the last campaign, she had bigger turnouts than McCain had,” Grassley said.

Since the Iowa caucuses are the first test for Republican presidential candidates in 2012, a visit could also be beneficial to Palin, whom many still think could lead a future GOP ticket.

 

dude, no one gives a shit ...


Romney should crush Obama, whether he will is another story.

Hell, we've elected a marxist, I think the country will accept a Mormon after that.

 

This article is interesting. For one thing, you'd never see such an article about a controversial democrat pol. Say, "Southern Dem Candidates Shun Kennedy's Help." Two, it helps explain why republicans are a minority party. They are afraid to be seen with the most popular figure in their party because she is hated by the leftwing media.

 

If Southern Dems did actually shun Kennedy's help, it would be in the press...

That the republicans are chicken shit, oh I agree...

 

Whoa, Mr. AAA - with all due respect from several past posts, I need to comment here. First, I know you're not comparing the very popular Ms. Palin with the Kennedys. Secondly, I think the conroversial aspect over Palin is the cause for the Republicans concern, not her potential involvement in an actual election. And, I don't think that left wing media everyone likes to bring up is doing any hating of Ms. Palin. What I seem to be hearing is more along the lines of bewilderment, heck that same media follows her around like puppydogs, hardly hating her.

I personally think she will go the talk show route, or similar. Such as Oliver North or similar.



c

 

"the most popular figure in their party"


come on man ...

Hey, I love Sarah, but "Leader of the Free World" ... you've got to be kidding me

 

Guess that makes me invulnerable, cause she can come on over to my house anytime.

 

Who said anything about Leader of the Free World? And who is more popular among rank and file in the GOP? McCain? Don't make me laugh.

 

You think the liberal media treats her even handedly? They have been out to destroy and humiliate her from the day she was nominated. We had the spectacle of airhead news readers like Katie Couric treating her like she was a special ed student. Maybe she's not Henry Kissinger. Is Biden? She cleaned his clock in the debate. The media sent reporters all over alaska looking for dirt on her and her family, yet they were totally uninterested in very real questions about whether Obama was even born here, how he managed to get into columbia and Harvard Law, his shady associations and a host of other questions.

The most sickening aspect of this whole episode has been the active collaboration of republican operatives. The same morons that ran McCain's inept campaign are a steady source of negative stories on Palin. Of course, they are too cowardly to come out and face her publicly. Why bother, when they can use their media buddies to backstab her?

 

I have AAA on ignore but I saw this comment quoted. How the right must wish this were the case. Let's just state the facts for the record. The fact is that today's media are interested in train wrecks. The media will focus on anything bizarre. You don't 'hate' a two-headed cockroach. Some people may find it mildly disgusting and others will find in it a scientific curiousity. It's bizarre and it gets attention. Palin has made herself into the media equivalent of a two-headed cockroach by her words and deeds (and there's no need to list them all again). For this reason, the tabloid media (which now encompass what we used to call mainstream media, on both sides) focus on her.

Rational Republicans are just hoping and praying that she will go away quietly.

These are the facts.

(btw...ever since late 2008 when it became clear that Obama might actually have a run at the Presidency, one thing has struck me about the right. They have a tendency to blame everyone but themselves for their problems. I have often made the case that the racists and Anti-Semites on here are doing the classic weak-minded thing - blaming others for their own lack of accomplishment. Failed traders do the same thing. It seems to go beyond that, though).