Texas Governor Rick Perry will be named chairman of the Republican Governors Association when the group gathers in California next week.
Perry’s appointment to the RGA won’t be the governor’s first rodeo: He led the same committee in 2008 and had worked in varying capacities for the group in years prior.
The Washington-bound move — not the move for which some Republican donors had hoped — comes as Perry will soon become Texas’ longest serving chief executive, entering now his tenth year in the governor’s mansion.
The Texas Republican will replace Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty atop the committee as it prepares for three gubernatorial contests in Louisiana, Mississippi and Kentucky in the 2011 election season.
If you go through and read the comments, people are very excited about this move... these peeps are the same peeps who are very critical of some of the moves the NRCC and NRSC have made...
Rick ran the RGA in 2008 and was the finance chair in 2010... he and some of the other governors really set out in 2006 to have a long term strategy and some cohesion and continuity for the organization...
Rick will have to avoid the pitfalls of playing too early and picking the wrong candidates and all of that... I think if he can keep the discussion directed toward federalism and the states versus Washington he will continue to do well...
The Republican Governors Association does seem like the coolest kid on the block in some ways... they have some of the best conferences... they raise and spend money the most efficiently... they had some of the best online videos of the 2010 cycle... they have a lot of national stars in their ranks including Rick... and they avoided the criticism that some other organizations had from grassroots leaders...
Not counting some of the territories and commonwealths they control 29 governorships now which is like controlling 58 in the senate if you think of it that way... they are just shy of a super majority, but they have a chance to get above 30 in 2011 if they play their cards right...
If Rick can recruit a Democrat or two to join his side opposing Obama on various things he will go a long way toward showing a unified front of states against the federal government's seemingly never ending growth...
Finally I will say that this does verify that Rick is likely not running for president... I think just doing things to increase your national profile does not always mean you are running for president... but the speculation started reaching a fevered pitch until this RGA move was announced...
What this also means is that Haley Barbour is almost definitely running for president... and most likely some of the current RGA peeps will leave to help his campaign raise money and organize on the ground. Will Rick support Haley through the RGA? I bet he will stay neutral for many reasons until much later on in the game. Tim Pawlenty is another big RGA player who is running in 2012... there could be others as well.... a lot of the governors elected in 2009 and 2010 will form the base of possible candidates in 2016 and 2020 as well depending on how things go in 2012... Republicans will be in much better shape on the national stage due to redistricting... due to reapportionment of electoral votes... and due to having more former governors who can run for national office and have a credible platform...
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Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.