Is Haley Barbour Running For President?

From the looks of it, he certainly is.

Haley Barbour's Iowa Mailer (Front)

On Tuesday, the two term Governor of Mississippi sent out a mailer but it wasn’t to the people of his state,. It went to the people of Iowa.

In this mailer, the Governor does not declare that he is running for anything. Instead, on one side of 8”x10”, glossy mailer, the Governor informs voters that “We can’t wait until 2012 to start taking our country back. We need to elect conservative Governors and Members of Congress in 2010.”

On the other side, in a direct reference to the 2010 midterm

Haley Barbour's Iowa Mailer (Back)

elections Barbour’s mailer states, “Conservatives have the opportunity to put America back on the right track” and from there it proceeds to tell you who Barbour is with bullet points that explain how

• He steered Mississippi through Katrina and tough economic times
• As Chairman of the republican Governor’s Association he helped lead the way to victory in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races of ‘09

And

• As former Chairman of the RNC he spearheaded the republican revolution of ‘94

The mailer then goes on to ask people to go to his Political Action Committee website, Haley’s PAC, where they can sign up for updates to find out about what he “is doing to help Conservative leaders across America”

What this mailer does is introduce Barbour’s name to the people of Iowa and with it’s theme of taking back our country, helps establish Barbour as a Conservative leader in the minds of its readers.

While the mailing will increase the speculation over Barbour’s White House ambition’s, as Chairman of the RGA he will continue to suggest that he is not looking at that right now, but simply focusing on electing Conservatives in 2010. And he surely is doing that, but not merely for the sake of electing good people to office. He is also doing it to insure that when those people are elected, they owe him a little favor in return……..such as their endorsement of Barbour for President.

Barbour’s early strategy is a little unorthodox. While other contenders for the Republican presidential nomination are raising money for their potential campaigns and donating some of it to other candidates for the same reasons as Barbour, Barbour himself has spent little time raising cash for his personal PAC. Instead he has focused on raising money through the Republican Governor’s Association and investing it properly into the campaigns of candidates running this November. Since he took over the RGA last after Governor Mark Sanford AWOL, Haley Barbour has shattered all previous RGA records for midterm election cycles, hauling $19 million dollars in just the second quarter alone. This gives Barbour control over a RGA war chest, which he built that exceeds over $40 million in cash on hand. That is a lot of money to help elect fellow Governor’s with and to insure that a majority of statehouses in 2011 are in Republican hands just as draw the new district lines that will make up Congress for the decade to come.

So at this point in time, we can safely say that Barbour is preparing to run for President.

After the midterm elections, once he has helped elect a few dozen Republicans, expect Haley Barbour to quickly raise a few million for Haley’s PAC. Few people have the network of connections and fundraising capabilities of Barbour. As the former RNC Chairman, one of the most successful in history, many powerful people are indebted to Barbour and still greatly appreciate the political leadership he demonstrated during the 90’s. This will enable him to quickly raise a few million for Haley’s PAC and then after that you can count on a lot more mailers going out to the people of Iowa……..and New Hampshire….and Michigan,…… and South Carolina, Florida, etc, etc.

For detailed information on the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination visit White House 2012