Roll Call’s Stu Rothenberg has been enjoying the same parlor game I have: picking Dems for Kerry’s ticket.
He recognizes the three most obvious names — Edwards, Clark, and Gephardt — but concludes that there’s already plenty of speculation about them, so “there’s not much point wasting time on them.” Fair enough.
And Rothenberg completely discounts any rumors about Hillary Clinton making the ticket, saying that anyone who believes Clinton will be Kerry’s running mate “is an idiot. So I’m not wasting time on that silly scenario.” That’s a lot harsher than I would have put it, but the sentiment is probably right.
Instead, Rothenberg focuses on three names: former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, and West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
I don’t see Nunn and Hunt receiving too much attention — they’re both getting long in the tooth and have expressed a certain hostility for re-entering the political arena — but Rockefeller is an intriguing possibility. He’s a moderate, serious senator with an extensive background in foreign affairs and health care policy. As I see it, there are at least three good reasons Kerry could consider him for the ticket.
First, Rockefeller has extensive national security credentials, which Kerry aides have indicated is important in choosing a running mate. As the vice chair of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, Rockefeller has earned a respected reputation on foreign affairs.
Second, he has a lot of money. His name, after all, is Rockefeller.
And lastly, West Virginia is likely to be a key swing state in November. While the state narrowly backed Bush in 2000, West Virginia has traditionally been a reliable state for Dem presidential candidates, with the Dem winning eight of the previous 10 elections there. Rockefeller enjoys broad popularity in his home state and would likely tilt the scales in the Dems’ direction.
The only drawback is that West Virginia will be an important swing state, but it won’t be enough to make up for changes in the electoral college map since 2000. Gore sort of lost, but at the time, winning one more state — any state — would have put him in the White House. Now the map is different and Kerry will need all of the states Gore won plus six more electoral votes. West Virginia has five.
(Just as an aside, if Kerry wound up with 269 electoral votes, it necessarily means Bush would end up with 269 electoral votes. The election would then go to the House for the first time since 1824. Fun, fun, fun.)
If Kerry wanted to try and pick a running mate from a red state with more electoral votes, there’s always Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (10 electoral votes), about whom there’s been a sudden burst of attention.
The Arizona Daily Star reported yesterday that “Napolitano is playing the coy free agent, refusing to discuss in detail her interest in the position or any discussion she has had on the issue.” The article added, however, that Napolitano has “left the door open, if only to let the whispers into her office.”
A potential complication for Napolitano is an Arizona law that would force her to resign her office just to seek federal office. If she were on the Dem ticket and lost, she’d be out of the job she fought hard to win just two years ago. Making matters worse, from a local perspective, Napolitano knows that she’d be replaced by an arch rival — Republican secretary of state Jan Brewer.
Regardless, here’s yet another name to throw into the mix.