Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will play to a friendly crowd with her speech to Republican delegates tonight, judging from a scan of more than 60 reports on state delegations from news sources around the country. A sampling: ” State’s delegation ecstatic over Palin ” (Nevada), ” Georgia delegates rally around Palin “, ” Palin gets thumbs up from area delegates ” (Indiana), ” Palin pick scores with Nebraska delegates ” and ” Utahns rally around Palin, kin .” (See Stateline.org’s “Convention news from the state” column on this page, listing the best of state delegation coverage.)
The 2008 Republican convention is abuzz with murmurs of who’s running – for governor in 2009 and 2010. Kansas’ U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback confirmed to The Wichita Eagle’s Prent D. Wistrom that he’s considering a run in 2010 to succeed the term-limited Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. John O’Connor from The State (Columbia) reports that two of three Republicans expected to seek to take the helm from term-limited Gov. Mark Sanford (R) in 2010 have been making the rounds in St. Paul, meeting with national figures such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House aide Karl Rove. And The Star-Ledger’s Josh Margolin mentions that U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, considered New Jersey’s Republican frontrunner to take on Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in 2009, skipped the GOP convention, but that other challengers are taking more conspicuous roles in Minnesota.
The Alaska delegation is relishing its newfound attention, reports Rena Dalbridge of the (Fairbanks, Alaska) Daily News-Miner . Seeking to parlay interest in Gov. Sarah Palin as vice-presidential timber into a focus on the state’s natural resources, the delegation Tuesday announced plans to wear orange safety vests and hard hats, with the words “Drill Alaska” on one side, “Drill Now” on the other, and on the back, “Pay Less.”
What do the country’s most Republican state and most Democratic state have in common? Neither delegation got any respect when it came to their GOP convention hotel, writes Josh Loftin and Lisa Riley Roche of the Deseret (Utah) News . The delegations from both Utah and Massachusetts are at least half an hour away from the convention floor at the Xcel Energy Center. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney told his state’s delegates, “I know we’re the bluest state in America, and it’s not a surprise they put us so far away. But I got the chance also to visit the Utah delegation, and they’re the reddest state in America and they’re just as far away.”
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
