Tures: Is Sarah Palin packing the GOP with 'Powerchicks?'

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John Tures, a political science professor at LaGrange College in Georgia, has written an op-ed for the Southern Political Report intended to explore the question: Is Sarah Palin is trying to boost women, conservatism, or is there something else afoot with her support? Prof. Tures discusses Gov. Palin and what he says are her picks of Nikki Haley, Susanna Martinez, Sharron Angle and Carly Fiorina, then writes:

I like to pride myself on writing about the rise of women in politics in the past few years. But long before I ever wrote a column, back in 2001, syndicated columnist Matt Towery published his book Powerchicks: How Women Will Dominate America with Longstreet Press. It seemed like a risky move, given how few women were in Congress, the Senate, and governor mansions at the time. But you could say it was a decade ahead of its time.

So is SarahPAC an example of a PowerChick takeover? Let's look at the entire list of endorsements first before we conclude that Mama Grizzlies are devouring the male boars of Republican politics, with Sandra Fish's article "Sarah Palin's Endorsement: Curse or Blessing?" in PoliticsDaily.com.

First, she's endorsed plenty of male candidates, like Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, North Carolina Sen.Richard Burr, South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, etc. But several of them are running unopposed in their primaries. She's endorsed Rand Paul in Kentucky, but he ran against another man (Trey Grayson). The same can be said for Clint Didier (Washington Senate).

In fact, she's endorsed a few male candidates against female candidates. She opted for Texas Gov. Rick Perry against Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the GOP Primary. And she supports Joe Miller's insurgent campaign against Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski. There's bad blood between Palin and Murkowski, but that doesn't explain why Palin donated $5,000 to Murkowski last year, as Fish noted.

The good professor concludes that, because Gov. Palin did not always endorse the most conservative candidate in each race, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate's strategy is aimed at a 2012 or 2016 presidential run. While Tures isn't the first person to reach that conclusion (which may indeed turn out to be a valid one), reading his opinion piece leads us to our own conclusion that for an associate professor, the research behind his piece may be lacking some depth.

Prof. Tures wonders, for example, why SarahPAC donated to Sen. Lisa Murkowsky and to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Anyone who has done their homework on Sarah Palin knows that when her PAC was first organized, a number of Republicans made donations to it to help get it off the ground. One of those was Graham, and Gov. Palin was simply paying back the favor. Tures also questions the governor's backing of McCain, but iot should be obvious that she was showing her loyalty, a character trait she values highly, to her former running mate. The Murkowski donation was made to put an end to media rumors which were rampant just after the 2008 election that Gov. Palin would challenge Murkowski for her Senate seat.

Tures also states that Sarah Palin endorsed Sharron Angle, Sen. Tom Coburn, Sen.Richard Burr and Sen. Jim DeMint. Actually, Gov. Palin never formally endorsed any of those four, although her PAC made donations to them and she offered some words of encouragement to Angle via social media. Donations to a candidate's campaign are not explicit endorsements, and even regarding them as implicitly so could be problematic.

Less than rigorous research by the professor could possibly be explained by the fact that it is summer, and he may not have any grad assistants to do the legwork for him. Still, when you are a professor of political science, it would be helpful if you had a better working knowledge of that which you choose to write about than Dr. Tures demonstrates with this opinion piece.

To answer the question posed, no, Gov. Palin isn't trying to pack the GOP with Mamna Grizzlies, although she is obviously working to get more conservative women into office, just like she says she is. By our count, she has made 32 formal endorsements, twelve of which have gone to women. But she may not be through endorsing yet. Plus, her motivation doesn't have to be limited to an either/or proposition and isn't likely to be. She has reasons on more than one level for the endorsements she has made.

- JP