Sarah PAC

Gov. Sarah Palin is again flexing her national political muscle: She's created a federal political action committee.

It's a move that will allow Palin to collect campaign donations, but the money isn't for her. That's because Palin's not a declared candidate for any office.

So while the group, SarahPAC hopes to use her star power to pull in cash. Any money raised will go to candidates who share her vision and views.

Palin announced the new group through Facebook, sending a note Tuesday to her nearly half-million supporters that it had been created, and invited them to check out the Web site SarahPAC.com.

PACs are groups – regulated by federal law -- that use donations to influence elections. The basic rules are that donors may contribute up to $5,000 per PAC per year and PACs may contribute up to $5,000 per candidate per election (with primaries and general elections counted separately. (Read more from the Center for Responsive Politics.)

The PAC's Web site is pretty sparse, offering some political boilerplate ("Our country, founded on conservative principles and the fight for freedom, must confront the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination"), several shout-outs for energy independence, a form to sign up for e-mails and, pivotally, a place to donate.
As Salon's Alex Koppelman notes, most PACs started by politicians exist almost entirely for the purpose of aggrandizing their namesakes and this one will likely be no different. Palin is thought to be eyeing a presidential run in 2012.

The site says the committee "believes the Republican party is at the threshold of an historic renaissance that will build a better future for all."

And it pledges to support local and national candidates.Pam Pryor, a spokesperson for Sarah PAC says it's not a step toward Palin taking a run at higher office.

"This is not an exploratory committee,And whether it was (Sen. Saxby) Chambliss in December, whatever, there are just a lot of requests coming in and this will kind of harness that energy," Pryor said. "This is not about a future run for her." Pryor said.

Pryor says Palin has received numerous requests by Republicans across the country seeking her support.

But the move hints that Palin is interested in running on the national level, said political analyst Jennifer Duffy.

"Usually if you are a governor and you hold a statewide office or you form a federal PAC there is some federal ambition there, because there are certainly other ways to accomplish some of these goals without doing this," Duffy said.

Most aspirants for the White House form these kind of PACs, Duffy added, saying that Palin would probably top a list of possible Republican party hopefuls for the presidency.

Channel 2 News tried to speak to Palin directly about all of this and were told to call the political action committee in Virginia to find out if the governor could make time.

The PAC said Palin was too busy with state business.