Hurricane Sarah

The election is two weeks away, but the campaign trail reviews of Sarah Palin already are in, and they aren’t pretty.

According to multiple Republican campaign sources, the former Alaska governor wreaks havoc on campaign logistics and planning. She offers little notice about her availability, refuses to do certain events, is obsessive about press coverage and sometimes backs out with as little lead time as she gave in the first place.


In short, her seat-of-the-pants operation can be a nightmare to deal with, which, in part, explains why Palin doesn’t often do individual events for GOP hopefuls.

It’s not that Palin issues outlandish, rock star-like demands such as certain-colored M&M’s in the greenroom. At the events Palin does attend, officials say, she’s no diva; Kind and courteous is the more frequent description. (See: Photos: Sarah Palin's campaign appearances.)

But the high-maintenance aspects of dealing with the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee have angered and frustrated some conservative candidates and aides who once thought highly of Palin and, for more skeptical Republicans, simply confirmed their view that she’s self-centered and unhelpful to the cause.

All of it has become fodder for e-mails and bar-stool chats among the tightknit world of Republican political professionals.

Take, for example, the case of Palin’s interaction with the campaign of Sen. Chuck Grassley, an iconic figure in the Iowa GOP who has served continuously in elected office since 1958.

After contributing money from her political action committee, Palin indicated that she would also be willing to campaign for him. With the Alaskan coming to the state last month to raise money for the state GOP, a Palin aide offered Grassley’s camp a two-hour window earlier that same day for an event.

Recognizing the money Palin can raise, Grassley’s team said it wanted to have her do a luncheon fundraiser. Palin, however, indicated that she didn’t want to raise money, but preferred a “message” event on a policy issue. So no event took place.

Grassley aides remain puzzled as to why she would offer her help, then refuse to do what the veteran senator thought was most beneficial to his bid for a sixth Senate term.

“It says to me she’s not serious about running for president,” said a source close to Grassley, suggesting that a real White House hopeful would not have snubbed a figure like the senior senator in the state that begins the nomination process.

Similarly, the Iowa GOP was in discussions with Palin’s camp leading up to her appearance at its fundraiser to have her do a rally in the state’s conservative northwest corner. Rep. Steve King, who represents the area, got involved, and Palin indicated she was open to it. But she never gave the party confirmation. Finally, on the Wednesday before what would have been a Friday event, she indicated that she wouldn’t do it.

Palin’s camp, without denying the various accounts, noted that she had offered significant support to a number of candidates even as she was besieged with pleas for help.

“There is an enormous volume of requests for Gov. Palin to do all kinds of activities to help the party and individual candidates,” said Michael Goldfarb, an adviser to Palin. “She’s done as many of these events as she possibly can.”

He framed it as a matter of Palin putting her family first.

“People lose sight of the fact that this is a woman with certain responsibilities that other major figures in the Republican Party don’t have — in her case, five kids, one of whom is very young,” Goldfarb said.

Yet, the problems that GOP campaigns have when booking her for events illustrate the challenges Palin will have in the event she runs for president. In part because of trust issues, she will not expand her circle and establish the sort of infrastructure necessary to coordinate basic matters such as surrogacy and travel. She has a lone staffer with a background in opposition research handling all of her interaction with campaigns.

The setup has cost her in goodwill, an important political currency. The disorganization and restrictions are viewed as rude by elected officials and operatives who are accustomed to national political figures who operate in a more conventional manner and are willing to assist as local campaigns see fit.

A recurring theme among the complaints is the problem of last-minute notice. In one instance, Palin had agreed to do a fundraising event for Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul, but campaign officials had difficulty pinning her down for a specific date, and the amount of time she offered got smaller and smaller.

Paul’s camp was, according to a Republican source familiar with the event, “ready to cut bait on her.”

“Then her people called on a Saturday night and said she’d be available for 45 minutes the next Thursday,” said the source.

That’s not much time to promote a high-dollar event.

“They had everybody scrambling,” the source said.

Palin did ultimately come to Louisville for the event, which was a closed-press luncheon that began at 11:30 a.m. to accommodate her schedule.

Candidates aren’t the only ones who get this sort of treatment: Conservative media figures also have had to deal with Palin’s herky-jerky approach.

When Alaska's former governor released her book last fall, she repeatedly sought to move around scheduled media appearances with little notice.

According to a source familiar with the situation, she backed out of planned interviews with conservative talk-show hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin the morning she was scheduled to talk to them. And her multiple schedule changes so annoyed Glenn Beck that he finally decided not to have her on his radio or TV show to promote the book.

“These are people who support her,” said a frustrated source who knew about Palin’s treatment of the conservative talkers. “Her whole world is chaos.”

Not wanting to hurt their clients or candidates, few GOP sources will talk openly about the exercise of dealing with Palin. And some will discuss their interaction only if their campaign is not identified.

But it’s in some of these cases where the difficulties are most vividly rendered.

Late last Friday afternoon, Palin’s political aide, Andy Davis, contacted officials with a competitive House campaign. The former governor would be available Tuesday, Davis said.

As with Grassley, the reaction of the House campaign was to have Palin do a fundraiser.

“What [the candidate] needs more than anything else is money,” said a GOP source familiar with the situation.

No-go, replied Davis, indicating that not only did she not want to raise money, but she also didn’t want to do a rally. The preference was for something “low-key,” so Davis suggested visiting a factory or going door to door. But in doing so, the candidate would have to limit the exposure of the event. They could bring only one “trusted local reporter” along, Davis said, according to a source familiar with the exchange.

Without much media attention, such a grass-roots event would have done next to nothing for the candidate, said the source close to the situation. But the campaign — a lean operation, like those of most House candidates — scrambled to put together another plan that would accommodate Palin. They sent it to Davis on Saturday.

The campaign didn’t get word until Monday morning, the day before the event was to take place, that Palin’s schedule had changed. She couldn’t come. Palin offered no reason for the no-show.

After the experience, the campaign, filled with conservatives who thought well of Palin, began referring to her as “Princess Sarah,” said the source close to the situation.

Another House client of this same person had the same experience — little notice of availability and heavy restrictions on the nature of the event. This candidate, though, is still trying to land Palin for a rally, so few other details were divulged.

And the list goes on.

One major GOP Senate campaign sought Palin’s endorsement at the beginning of the year but didn’t know how to reach her. Out of desperation, they ended up sending a message to her Facebook page. Having never heard back, an operative for the campaign asked a reporter for the e-mail address of Palin’s representative at the time. The campaign got a noncommittal reply.

Then, one day months later, the campaign was told Palin was going to offer her endorsement. They waited for much of the day, frequently checking her Facebook and Twitter page. Finally, a consultant to the campaign put a call in to somebody close to the former governor and asked if the endorsement was still coming.

“We were told it was going to happen in an hour, and she was going to tweet it,” recounted an operative on the campaign. “But we waited and waited and waited, and it never happened. Then we never heard of it again.”

Some of the complaints are, as Palin sympathizers suggest, partly due to frustration from campaigns that they didn’t get touched.

A source close to losing GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum, for example, recounted a months-long process of trying to woo Palin only to get radio silence, flashes of hope and then signs that she may go with his primary opponent.

In some, but not all, cases, Palin charges campaigns for travel expenses. Georgia Republican gubernatorial hopeful Karen Handel, for example, shelled out nearly $100,000 from her campaign account to get Palin for a pre-runoff rally earlier this year.

“I don’t know of anyone else who does that,” said a longtime GOP consultant who’s working on a host of statewide races this election cycle.

This consultant said some of his clients have “tried desperately” to get Palin in for events — to no avail.

“They don’t call to say no; they just don’t return your call,” groused this source.

Campaign operatives overseeing races in Washington all say they have little appetite for Palin in most of their races because of how toxic she tends to be with independent voters. But even in the red states and districts where the former governor could be of great assistance, officials say that with two weeks left, it’s not worth the hassle.

“We’ve given up all hope on her doing anything for our guys,” said one official.