Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

A former chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party is likely to sign on to help the longshot presidential bid of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, reports The Hill. Chip Saltsman, a longtime aid to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee was a two-time campaing fundraiser for President Bush at the pioneer level ($100,000). Of late he has been working with Frist’s Volunteer PAC.

The Hill says Saltsman says he thinks Huckabee could rally the Republican base and reach out to centrists and independents. Huckabee, The Hill reports, "has done little hiring while other candidates have been making high-profile hires from Washington and the early-voting states."

"I think, as you look at the race in a macro-sense, a lot of staff has been scooped up," Saltsman said. "But there are still plenty that are eager to look for the right candidate."

Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, said that someone like Saltsman would be a known commodity with the chairmen of other Southern states, and that he has a demonstrated ability to raise money. "He knows the people who give money," Oppenheimer said. "He has got the right people on his Rolodex."

But one of the biggest money-men in Tennessee GOP politics, fundraiser-extraordinaire Ted Welch, has already signed on with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.