Palin to make first 2010 campaign appearance

Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) is becoming increasingly active on the campaign trail and will make her first 2010 campaign appearance on Sunday.

Most of the candidates Palin will campaign for are favored by the conservative Tea Party movement with one notable exception — the man who put Palin on the national scene.

{mosads}Palin will appear with Tea Party darling Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) on Sunday. Perry faces a stiff primary challenge from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and the election is less than a month away. More than 10,000 people have signed up to attend the Houston rally, according to the Perry campaign.

“Our campaign has been working with the Palin team for the last couple months,” said Catherine Frazier, a Perry spokeswoman. “Feb. 7th ended up being a good day for both teams.”

Palin, who’s keynoting the Tea Party convention in Nashville on Saturday, has a few more campaign stops on her schedule.

In April, she will appear in Minnesota with one of founders of the Tea Party movement, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

But next month, Palin will appear in Arizona with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who made her his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. McCain faces a primary challenge from conservative former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) this cycle.

Some political observers have criticized Palin for showing little appetite for political heavy lifting, especially when looking at her popularity with the conservative base.

They note Palin will promote her book, appear at a speaking engagement, and provide commentary on the Fox News Channel or via Facebook, but question whether she will campaign for Republican candidates.

The answer is yes, albeit only for certain ones – at least for now.

A Palin spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. But Palin wrote on her Facebook page last month: “the commonsense conservative principles of liberty and fiscal responsibility are on the rise, and that’s why I’m going out and campaigning as hard as I can to make a difference.”

Moreover, Palin promised to support “others so that they can continue to fight for our American values.”

The former governor has remained active in national politics since the 2008 presidential campaign, but, until this year, she had primarily exerted her influence from afar. For instance, she posted a message of support on Facebook for conservative candidate Doug Hoffman, who ran in the special election for New York’s 23rd House district. She didn’t campaign in-person for Hoffman, and never appeared with Republicans Bob McDonnell or Chris Christie during last year’s gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, nor did she campaign in Massachusetts for Scott Brown.

Still, she has been giving money to Republican politicians. Her political action committee, SarahPAC, has given to more than a dozen candidates, including Sens. John Thune (S.D.) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa), as well as former Rep. Rob Portman (R), who’s running for Senate in Ohio. But until this weekend, Palin had stayed off the campaign trail.

Whether Palin goes beyond her current schedule of campaign events remains to be seen. What is for certain is that Perry, McCain and Bachmann aren’t the only Republicans willing to have Palin by their side in a tough race.

“Marco Rubio feels he has a lot in common with Sarah Palin in terms of their conservative principles,” said Alex Burgos, a spokesman for the former Florida House speaker.

Rubio, who’s popular among the Tea Party movement, is campaigning for the Republican Senate nomination against popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

“At the end of the day, [Rubio] would be honored to have her support,” Burgos said.