{"id":25684,"date":"2011-02-03T21:06:02","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T04:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=25684"},"modified":"2011-02-03T21:28:11","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T04:28:11","slug":"senator-john-thune-not-running-in-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/02\/senator-john-thune-not-running-in-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator John Thune – not running in 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

John Thune<\/p><\/div>\n

Here is the second in\u00a0my series of predictions about who’s seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and who isn’t.\u00a0The\u00a0first post<\/a> maintained that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is not running.<\/p>\n

Next in line –\u00a0South Dakota Senator John Thune<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Washington is all abuzz of late wondering if this relatively understated senator (but soon to be noticed heart throb, \u00a0a la Scott Brown) will make a run at the GOP presidential primary. Roll Call is not willing to risk making a call on Senator Thune, but is willing to\u00a0tell us<\/a> that\u00a0his team will announce their intentions by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

I, on the other hand, am going to predict that Senator Thune is not running in 2012.<\/p>\n

To begin, who is Senator John Thune? Senator John Thune\u00a0is the man who\u00a0so gloriously won Tom Daschle’s U.S. Senate seat in 2005. He’s a social conservative’s conservative – he professes to be an evangelical christian and received bachelor’s from Biola University.<\/p>\n

And, he’s a fiscal conservative’s conservative – he has a M.B.A. and served under the Reagan Administration’s Small Business Administration. Among other things, he also served as the\u00a0executive director\u00a0of South Dakota’s Republican Party for two years in the early 90s. You can read more about Senator Thune here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For many, but not all of course,\u00a0he’s the dream candidate. He’s a stellar mix of social and fiscal conservatism and he’d be the unassuming underdog in this race. Senator Thune would be one of a few\u00a0candidates in the 2012 Republican field who did not<\/em> run in 2008. For many voters, this is a net positive, and I’m sure it’s making his political team salivate.<\/p>\n

Why I think he’s not running<\/h3>\n

Now, back to my prediction. Senator Thune is not running.<\/p>\n

First, on what am I basing my information?\u00a0Answer: an inside source who has known Senator\u00a0Thune since high school. But let’s be real here – this decision is\u00a0larger than just the senator. This decision also\u00a0rides on the senator’s political team.<\/p>\n

Now here is the interesting thing. I understand that Senator Thune’s\u00a0political team is pushing him to run, not so much\u00a0for the 2012\u00a0Republican presidential\u00a0nomination per say,\u00a0but for either the 2012\u00a0vice presidential nomination or for name visability\u00a0in the\u00a0lead up to an actual run at the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.<\/p>\n

In my mind the latter makes sense, but there are other ways to get the first.\u00a0 The bottom line is that Thune’s political team is pushing him to run in 2012 with more than one end goal in site.<\/p>\n

Bet on Thune running in 2016<\/h3>\n

At the the moment Senator Thune is flattered and Senator Thune is tempted. But, at the end of the day, Senator Thune will ultimately call the shots and\u00a0not run. My hunch is that after looking at the fast and burgeoning <\/em>army of potential\u00a02012 Republican primary contenders at CPAC next week, Thune (with a little prodding from friends not on his political team) will realize that he won’t be able to muster the money or the time\u00a0to compete\u00a0in\u00a0the field this go around.<\/p>\n

And, as such, Thune does not run in 2012.<\/p>\n

It’s a\u00a0humble prediction.\u00a0 (That said, I’d put my money on him for 2016.)<\/p>\n

Sarah Lenti is the blogger behind NMPolitics.net\u2019s <\/em>The Savvy<\/em><\/a>. E-mail her at <\/em>sarah@nmpolitics.net<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator John Thune is a stellar mix of social and fiscal conservatism and he’d be the unassuming underdog in the GOP presidential primary. For many, he’s the dream candidate. But I don’t think he’s running. Here’s why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1196,181],"tags":[156,116],"class_list":["post-25684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-the-savvy","tag-2012-election","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}