We’ve got Kasich, and I’m betting he brings Coburn aboard. My son Darren tells me there’s a Law of Threes. You want three. Not two. Not four. Three.
I think we can get Sarah Palin as our third big hitter. She may not be much of a factor nationally anymore, but in parts of the country, like, say, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Utah — you get the picture — she’s still very popular. And she’s popular with the sort of people we need to bring around — Eagle Forum types.
I’ve never met her, talked to her, or seen her in person. But when she was starting out in Wasilla politics, she had a mentor of sorts in State Senator Rick Halford, my closest ally in the legislature. Rick and I were pretty tight. He wanted to be Governor, which I wasn’t interested in. I wanted to be a United States Senator, which he wasn’t interested in. Neither of us had any money, and weren’t going to be able to raise much, either. The oil companies wouldn’t do anything for either one of us in a Republican primary. To get the oil boys behind you, you had to give them everything they wanted. 90% wasn’t good enough. My strategy was to be the most conservative Republican in the field. Nobody would get to the right of me, unless they were crazy. Rick had a similar strategy.
Palin was in his district, and he kind of took her under his wing. I remember him telling me I should keep an eye on her — she was one to watch. I left Alaska in 2001, before she made her splash. I’m sure Rick gave her a lot of good advice when she decided to take on incumbent Republican Frank Murkowski in the 2006 gubernatorial primary.
I’d like to get Palin to Boise on Jan. 23 for a rally with Kasich and Gov. Butch Otter. She’s a native Idahoan, and went to college there. If she’s got juice anywhere, it’s Idaho.
She was pretty active in the last election. She had an impact in some races. If she wants to do something politically in 2015, we’re a perfect fit. We know she’s with us. When Andy Biggs killed our bill in Arizona she got on Facebook and tore him a new one.
I’ll get ahold of Rick and ask him to get me in touch with her. When she was starting out I was still a player in Alaska politics. Wasilla is 30 miles from Anchorage as the crow flies, and there’s no doubt she read my columns and listened to me on the radio. She’ll give me a listen.
When Rick made his run for Governor in ’98 he asked me to run his campaign. I might have been able to get him elected. I was pretty good. But I turned him down, and he lost. I thought of myself as a candidate type, not somebody else’s campaign guy. And, to be blunt, Rick wasn’t much into gratitude. I should have done it, anyway.
He would have been a hell of a Governor.
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