Line Change!

In the Fix's Friday Presidential Line- they are in love with Newt but not so much for Huckabee. The National Journal insiders poll has an affinity for Newt as well, but not as much as Rudy. We at the Cooler are singing a different tune today. While Gingrich would create a tidal wave if he jumped in this race, the time has yet to come. And as it stands today it's Brownback with his social conservative credentials, declared candidacy and a clear constituency that is moving up the Cooler Line.

One thing everyone agrees on- George Allen's Senate loss has sunk his Presidential ambitions. So we are moving him off the line as GFA looks to John Warner's Senate seat or the Virginia's Governorship in 2009.

With that Brownback goes from 33-1 to 24-1 and Allen goes from 250-1 to OFF.

Have a great weekend Coolerites...

Chairmanships

With the RPI Chairman's race in full swing- as we posted on below- we wanted to take this opportunity to comment on an interesting development on the Democrat side.

This week Des Moines Lawyer Scott Brennan was elected by IDP. A former employee of Tom Harkin and friend of Chet Culver, Brennan seems a logical choice. Except for one thing- he supports John Edwards nascent Presidential campaign. Something that Governor Vilsack's people bristled at. The lesson we learn from this is that in politics as in life, memories are short. Vilsack won't have some of the small benefits that come with having a state party behind you in a Presidential campaign- something he'd expect in his home state. But until he gets serious VP juice, his usefulness is past and Iowa Democrats are moving on.

Interestingly enough the Presidential implications have as of yet not played a part in the race for RPI Chair- as none of the major four candidates Bonnie Hall, Bill Dix, Danny Carroll, and current chair Ray Hoffman have overt Presidential leanings. We'll see if that changes as the election apporoaches.

There's one name we left off that list- intentionally this time- Bob Vanderplaats. Word is that the Lt. Gov nominee is feeling out donors and activists alike about the possibility of a BVP run for Senate versus Teflon Tom Harkin.

Also as our Iowa Hawkeyes have accepted a bid to take on defending national champion Texas in the Alamo Bowl- we at the Cooler wanted to take this opportunity to point you to Chuck Todd's article on how the 2008 Presidential Race is like the BCS.

Go Hawks!

Hat Tip to the Civic Skinny for some of the background on the IDP Chairmanship Race.

Team McCain

The Washington Post this morning has the story on John McCain's National Presidential team. You can read about it at washingtonpost.com or at hotlineblog.national journal.com...

Noteworthy for us in Iowa is that laconic Marshalltown native Terry Nelson will serve as campaign manager.

Others of note include RNC communications director Brian Jones and national comm director. The Tarrance Group will serve as McCains pollster.

Both Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. And Gov. Tim Pawlenty will play major roles.

Watch out for the storm

We told you yesterday that Gov. Pataki had been actively recruiting attendees for an event they were having at the Des Moines PAC HQ.

Well today the event was cancelled due to a "storm" in new hampshire that kept Pataki from attending.

We are thinking that the real reason may have been the overwhelming lack of interest.

Romney/BVP Briefs

First a bit of housecleaning. We mistakenly left former Gubernatorial candidate and Lt Gov. Nominee Bob Vander Plaats off the list of people who are interested in the State Chairmanship.

Also Mitt Romneys PAC made a big pickup today hiring Matt Rhoades, research director for the RNC and BC04. He was largely responsible for bc04's tremendous rapid response team as well as the anti-Kerry research.

Most importantly he has a good relationship with Matt Drudge, who was already expected to be relatively hostile to McCain..

Nice pick up for Mitt.

Hodgepodge Part Deux

Here are two other hot items for this week.

• The Iowa State Central Committee will meet this Saturday to choose a date for the election of a new Chairman. Names currently being bandied about: a re-election of Ray Hoffman, Bonnie Hall- a 4th District SCC member from Boone, Danny Carroll- former state rep from Grinnell, Bill Dix, former state rep from Butler County and former 1st CD Congressional Candidate, and Polk County GOP Chair Ted Sporer. We'll have more on Presidential implications as we get closer.
• Chuck Hurley- President of the Family Policy Center, former state legislator, highly influencial GOP Activist, and all-around good guy- signed on with Sam Brownback yesterday. SAM BROWNBACK you say! Why him? Well Chuck and Sam were college roomates, making his decision a rather simple one.

All for now...

Mega Edition of Hodgepodge

While the Cooler's been trying to fix the finicky internet at Cooler HQ, the Caucus campaigns have been in high gear. So here's a large edition of hodgepodge.

• 21st Century Freedom PAC will be hosting a group of Iowa activists tomorrow at their old headquarters with their bare-bones support structure. Senator Stu Iverson is still on board as well as leading fundraiser Diane Crookham-Johnson. Team Pataki is said to be currently looking for new mid and lower level staff having lost Craig Schoenfeld, Erik Helland (McCain), Loras Schulte, Jo-Ellen Hill and Noreen Bush (McCain). Many Iowa activists have reported being invited in this attempt to reinvigorate Pataki's Iowa efforts.
• Explore McCain has reportedly hired field staff to supplement the mid-level staff and consultants we discussed last week. Expect McCain to have a full field staff before the end of the year.
• Recall that Commonwealth PAC has had a handful of field staffers since the summer months. Key PAC advisors David Kochel and Gentry Collins are looking to add to that number before the new year as well and are reportedly interviewing field staff this week.
• The Hotline has an interesting post today on McCain/Pataki/Romney's DC actions, including McCain's Christmas party with an all-star cast of attendees and a Pataki ex-Governor reunion dinner coming up this weekend.
• Rudy Giuliani's Exploratory Committee brought on Sandra Pack to deal with the dollars. Pack was the CFO for BC04 and served in the finance office of Bob Dole and Phil Gramm.
• And we just have to do this to needle our buddy Murphy a bit. A recent Scott Rasmussen poll shows Tom Vilsack at 39% and Mitt Romney at 35% in a head to head race for the Presidency. Vilsack gets crunched by McCain or Giuliani.

Whew- That's a lot to catch up on. Comment away.

Brownback is in

Senator Sam Brownback officially created an exploratory committee in his bid for the Presidency.

With the Big 3 all having problems with the soco base. Brownback has a clear constituency in this election.

More on this later...

Please Advise

Cooler Minions-

We have a busy Monday ahead of us at Cooler HQ and might not be able to blog until tomorrow evening. So we wanted to take this opportunity to ask you our readers to give us your .02 on what you'd like to see more of/less of from the Cooler staff in the winter months.

Don't be shy, be critical, and we'll try to accomodate your wishes.

On a side note, this last week we have had a record number of visitors to the Cooler. We're glad you are making us part of your daily procrastination.

-CC