At the Republican Governor's Association meeting, new governor-elects, Chris Christie (NJ) and Bob McDonnell (VA) had a kind of rookie-hazing going on, as each had to answer a harder question than other gov's -- in the Age of Palin, why didn't they let her come campaign for them?
Jonathan Martin:
Christie, running in deep-blue Jersey, said he only brought in out-of-state politicians if he had a personal relationship with them (as in the case of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani) or if, like Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, they had become governors "in similar circumstances and could tell a narrative to the people of New Jersey how Republican ideas could work."
As for McDonnell, CNN's Peter Hamby has his reply:
"We thought she was a good leader for the party as the governor of Alaska and had some good reforms in the state, but she was in such incredible demand frankly for the longest time we were not able to work out anything for her to come in.
And then after she decided to leave office we had pretty much already arranged all of the folks that we had for the home stretch for fundraisers, including several current and former governors, and so we pretty much had our strategy set at that point.”
All of which is to say -- no one wants to lose the support of thousands who will line up for hours to get Sarah Palin's signature. They've got the look of phone bankers. And phone bankers are powerful.
On the other hand, no one wants to lose the support of the thousands and thousands who pick up the phone. They've got the look of voters. And they're even more powerful.
