Sarah Palin May Run For US Senate
Sarah Palin is considering running for US Senate from Alaska against incumbent Democrat Mark Begich in 2014. This is apparetly the first time she has moved beyond the non-committal stage in mulling another run for elected office.
In an interview with Sean Hannity today, Palin said that that for one thing Sen. Ted Cruz (R – Texas) needs reinforcements on Capitol Hill, i.e. lawmakers who haven’t been corrupted by D.C. political logrolling. Palin also admitted that she might get in to the Senate race if the other announced GOP candidates aren’t strong enough to defeat Begich.
In a May opinion poll, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate garnered 32 percent of the vote in a hypothetical Republican primary. Lt. Gov. Meed Treadwell had 30 percent and 2010 Senate nominee Joe Miller lagged with 14 percent. The poll was commissioned by the Tea Party Leadership Fund. You may recall that Joe Miller won the GOP US Senate primary in 2010 but lost to the incumbent, fellow Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in an unprecedented general-election write-in campaign in which the Democrat was a non-factor.
Palin made headlines recently when she floated the idea of bolting the Republican Party altogether. In the Hannity radio interview, Palin explained that it would not be her first choice to leave the GOP but it could happen if the party refuses to live up to the principles established by Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
The discussion of the Sarah Palin for Senate campaign starts at about the nine-minute mark in this Sean Hannity interview (embed above).
Said Palin: “I’ve considered it because people have requested me considering it. But I’m still waiting to see what the line-up will be and hoping that, there again, there will be some new blood, some new energy, not just kind of picking from the same old politicians in the state that come from political families that have sort of reigned up there for so many years, because too many of them have been part of the problem.
Regardless of who runs, defeating Begich is the priority, Palin continued: “But I’m glad you brought that up because Sen. Mark Begich has got to be replaced. He has not done what he has promised to do for the people of Alaska and that was to represent what it is that the nation needs in terms of energy development and so many other natural resource development issues that are near and dear to Alaskans’ heart. Because he is on the wrong side of the aisle, he has to go along to get along with his Democratic leadership, and that’s a shame, that is a waste of opportunity for our nation.”
The fact that the Senate seat is currently held by a Democrat is an anomaly as Alaska is traditionally a solid GOP state. Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was very narrowly defeated for re-election in 2008 by Begich but only after Stevens was found guilty in a federal corruption trial shortly before the voting. Steven had (perhaps stubbornly) declined to step aside and let another Republican run in his place. It subsequently turned out that the charges against Stevens were wholly trumped up, and his conviction was later vacated on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. Stevens, the longest serving Republican senator in history and a decorated WW II pilot, later tragically died in a private plane crash in Alaska.
Regardless of what the national or Beltway media thinks, Sarah Palin would very likely be a strong candidate in Alaska for federal office. Do you think that Sarah Palin will or should run for US Senate?
