Sarah Palin

The 2000 U.S. Census listed Wasilla, Alaska, where Sarah Palin served as Mayor before her 2006 election as Governor, at 5,469. The New Jersey municipality closest in size is Old Tappan, pop. 4,482. Wasilla is a growing community, and the Census Bureau estimated their population in 2007 at 9,780 residents. Now it’s comparable to Rive Vale, which has an estimated population of 9,751.

MINNEAPOLIS - Stunned by Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) headline-snatching announcement last Friday that he selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, N.J. Democrats this week re-set after taking a three-day hard look at Palin.

So far, they’re having a difficult time squaring an obscure Alaskan with New Jersey’s hard-edged, ethnically diverse environs, despite Republicans’ best efforts - in the words of State GOP Chairman Tom Wilson - to make a case for why "New Jersey will love Sarah Palin."

"They have Eskimos in Alaska," former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield said to the suggestion that Palin may not have experience relating to the kinds of ethnic groups whose myriad cultures saturate New Jersey.

As for the fact that Palin’s a woman - a younger, slimmer verison of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) with an attitude to tempt backlash voters over to the GOP after Clinton’s primary loss - Democrats remain unimpressed.

Allison Littell McHose, a 43-year-old conservative Assemblywoman from Sussex County, thinks that Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old conservative Governor of Alaska, is a great choice for Vice President.

Much of the delegation has talked about Palin’s record on ethical reform resonating with New Jersey voters.  McHose, however, focused on her fiscal conservatism.

“She is a reformer, she has cut spending in the state of Alaska, and the refund she was able to give the people from oil is something that will resonate in the state of new jersey,” she said.  “We like someone who has chutzpah like she does.” 

Mike DuHaime at today's breakfast.: Politicker photo

MINNEAPOLIS - State Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Mercer) and McCain Campaign Political Director Mike DuHaime grew up together in the Republican Party, working for then-Congressman Bob Franks.

Referring to their paths onward as time passed, "One of them made good, and the other became a state senator," Baroni joked to the delegation at this morning’s breakfast.

Among those smiling faces in the audience was none other than the youthful DuHaime, paying his respects to his home crowd in this distant Midwestern city. The former campaign manager of Rudy Giuliani officially joined Team McCain in early July and now works out of Arlington, Va.

U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer, left, with GOP power player Bill Palatucci: Politicker photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - Now U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer takes the stage. Understated as usual, the Republican picks former Gov. Tom Kean out of the crowd, and happily notes the presence of U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-Hamilton).

Then he celebrates the national ticket of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"They’re two reformers, two mavericks, who are really going to change the country," Zimmer said.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be the sixth woman to appear on a statewide ballot as a major party candidate in New Jersey.  The first was Thelma Sharp, a 32-year-old Democratic State Committeewoman from Vineland who was nominated to run for a two-month unexpired term in the United States Senate in 1930.  Millicent Fenwick, a four-term Congresswoman, ran for the Senate in 1982 (she lost to Frank Lautenberg), and Montclair Mayor Mary Mochary unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Senator Bill Bradley in 1984.  Christine Todd Whitman narrowly lost a bid for U.S. Senate in 1990 (to Bradley), and was elected Governor in 1993 and 1997.  In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro lost New Jersey as the Democratic candidate for Vice President.

Sarah Palin may be the first vice presidential candidate since Sargent Shriver to enter a national campaign without ever taking a campaign contribution from a single New Jerseyan – and that’s because Shriver had never run for office before George McGovern picked him in 1972.  According to reports filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission (their version of the Election Law Enforcement Commission), Palin received no contributions from New Jersey residents in her bids for Governor, or for Mayor or Councilwoman in Wasilla.

Former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield: Politicker file photo 

MINNEAPOLIS - Former Summit Councilwoman Kelly Hatfield likes former Gov. Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential selection in no small part because the Alaskan served as mayor of a small town.

In her own unsuccessful 7th Congressional District run earlier this year, Hatfield emphasized her knowledge of local infrastructure issues as a plus for holding office in a bloated and misdirected Washington.

Palin brings the same grounded background, in Hatfield’s view.

"Her face re-brands the Republican Party," she said. "It’s not a gimmick. You don’t pick someone to be vice-president as part of a gimmick."

More from Politicker.com editorial cartoonist Rob Tornoe: According to local cartoonists, Alaska's loss isn't necessarily America's gain

MINNEAPOLIS - For most Republicans, that divide in their party between former Gov. Thomas Kean and George W. Bush is just as wide as the one they hope exists between Bush, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

"We’ve got an uphill battle," Kean said on the eve of party’s national convention. "The change theme is real."

In his acceptance speech last Thursday, McCain’s rival, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) elicited a roar from the crowd when he harnessed McCain to that 90 percent of the time he voted with Bush throughout the latter’s eight-year presidency.

But the GOP wants to sell McCain as a different kind of Republican: someone with gravitas who can reach out to the middle and appeal to people outside of the party, someone not unlike the environmentally friendly and socially tolerant Kean.