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Flap’s Links and Comments for May 9th on 15:37

These are my links for May 9th from 15:37 to 15:41:

  • The Christie campaign — to get him to change his mind – It’s no secret that Republican voters, donors and operatives are less than thrilled with th current lineup of Republican contenders. It’s also well known that because of that dissatisfaction, many donors are holding back, wishfully awaiting the arrival of a candidate whom they can enthusiastically support. Now comes word that some of the donors are taking matters into their own hands:Some of Iowa’s top Republican campaign contributors, unhappy with their choices in the developing presidential field, are venturing to New Jersey in hopes they can persuade first-term Gov. Chris Christie to run. The entreaty is the latest sign of dissatisfaction within the GOP over the crop of candidates competing for the chance to run against President Barack Obama in 2012.

    Bruce Rastetter, an Iowa energy company executive, and a half-dozen other prominent Iowa GOP donors sought the meeting with Christie, the governor’s chief political adviser, Mike DuHaime, told the Associated Press. The get-together is set for the governor’s mansion in Princeton, N.J., on May 31.

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    Read it all.

    Please note that Michael DuHaime ran Rudy giuliani’s Presidential campaign in 2008 and some of Christie’s staff are Giuliani’s.

    So, there is some national experience there.

  • Mitch Daniels ‘Would Like To’ Run For President, Top Adviser Says – But Daniels is not moving forward unless and until he is able to do so with the full support of his family. The Daniels adviser who spoke to HuffPost was frank in describing the current state of Daniel’s nascent campaign effort.“There’s no campaign. There’s no candidate,” the adviser said. “There is no structure. There is no anything.”

    Nonetheless, Eric Holcomb, the Indiana State GOP chairman and a longtime Daniels aide, is in talks with potential campaign staffers and has them on standby. And fundraising would be much less of a challenge for Daniels –- plugged in as he is to the donor network that propelled George W. Bush to the White House, given that he was Bush’s first budget director –- than for someone like former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty or some of the other candidates.

    If Daniels does decide to run, he would be a formidable opponent. And he would present a challenge to top-tier candidates such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, given his potential to be competitive in or even win Iowa, which begins the primary process with its caucus early next year.

    The conventional wisdom is that Iowa is so dominated by evangelical Christians that only a candidate like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee –- who won it in 2008 -– or Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) can win it. However, there are so many candidates currently competing for that vote – Bachmann, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain, and maybe Huckabee – that they might fragment that vote. That would allow someone who is conservative but with a bit broader appeal outside the evangelical enclave to emerge victorious.

    The evangelical vote is only about 30 percent of the vote anyway, said a senior Iowa Republican official who asked not to be identified so that he could asses the field more honestly.

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    Read it all.

    Fish or cut bait sometime within the next 7-10 days.

    Cheri Daniels delivers a speech to the Indiana GOP on Thursday night. So, anytime after this.