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Senator Palin? Tea party PAC pushing Sarah back into office

Could Alaska's most famous ex-governor become its newest senator? Members of the Tea Party Leadership Fund appear to be hoping for just that.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Could Alaska's most famous ex-governor become its newest senator? Members of the Tea Party Leadership Fund appear to be hoping for just that.

The political action committee recently sent out a fundraising email to supporters urging them to draft Palin to run for Democratic Senator Mark Begich's seat in 2014, insisting Palin would have a easy time ousting the senator, who's polling below 50% this week.

But would Palin be interested in the job? That seems less likely.

She hasn't held office since prematurely leaving the governor's mansion back in 2009. Since then she's enjoyed a lucrative career as a media personality, including stints as a Fox News commentator, a paid speaker, and, of course, a reality TV star.

And Palin is no longer as popular with her home state constituents as she was back in her glory days in 2008. She enjoyed a nearly 80% approval rating among Alaskans when she joined the McCain ticket, but that dropped to just under 30% by 2011. And nearly 4 out of 5 Alaskans said no when asked if their former governor should run for president in 2016 in a recent PPP poll.

But the conservative superstar still holds sway with her cohorts and has fundraising strength, which might be the real inspiration behind this tea party PAC's drafting campaign.