Politico‘s Maggie Haberman and Kenneth Vogel (“Sarah Palin-affiliated law firm made early-state deadline inquiries“) are reading the tea leaves for evidence of a Sarah Palin presidential run.
Ken Vogel and I both have sources telling us that calls were made on behalf of a mystery candidate to various early states to determine presidential filing deadlines.
The calls were made by representatives of the law firm Baker Hostetler – a firm that employs lawyer Mark Braden, who represents Sarah PAC, her political action committee.
As Ken notes, while he nor representatives of Palin’s campaign would comment on the calls, Palin is the only GOP politician eying the presidential race who is represented by the firm.
Considering that the filing deadlines for the various states is easily discoverable by Google searches, this seems rather dubious. And Braden is no amateur, having spent years as Chief Counsel to the Republican National Committee and touts himself as “widely recognized as an authority on state election laws, having served as Chief Counsel to the Ohio Elections Commission and Election Counsel for the Secretary of State in Ohio.”
The fact that Palin is touring the early primary states in a giant bus with her name on it would seem, as Jon Stewart has noted, as evidence either that she’s running for president or is crazy (not that these are mutually exclusive options). Given that the deadline for filing in Iowa–which she has to contest if she wants the nomination– is this month, we’ll soon know.
