Projo Politics Blog

Does Governor Carcieri have a personal stake in the 2008 presidential nomination?

The governor’s communication director, Steve Kass, thinks so.

Speaking on talk radio earlier in the month, Kass, a former talk-radio host, said Republican Mitt Romney would give Carcieri a cabinet position should Romney win the presidency.

The comment came as Kass was complaining that Carcieri’s credentials as an education leader were largely being ignored in Rhode Island.

“I look in the mirror each morning and I say, “Does anybody in this state know he’s national leader in education?” Kass said to Dan Yorke on WPRO-AM (630). “Does anybody know that? That the other governors of America, all of them, elected him as cochair to be their point person on education? Do they know that if Governor Romney got elected, that I hear talk about that he would appoint the governor as secretary of education? They think that much of his expertise and what he’s accomplished.”

The Romney campaign last week deflected questions on Kass’ comments to Carcieri’s office, which downplayed the suggestion that Carcieri would leave office for a cabinet position under Romney.

The governor’s spokesman, Jeff Neal, was left to spin his way out of the latest eyebrow-raising comments to leave Kass’ mouth (Kass made headlines last week after telling a newspaper reporter the governor had no plans to fill the director of revenue position. The comments were printed the same day Carcieri appointed Gary Sasse, executive director of the business-backed Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, to the position.)

“Steve Kass recalls stating that he had heard rumors that people were suggesting that, given Governor Carcieri’s national standing on education policy issues, it would be natural that Governor Romney would consider him as a candidate for education secretary in a Romney administration,” Neal told Political Scene. “However, Governor Carcieri has had no contact with Governor Romney’s campaign on this subject. Governor Carcieri would obviously be very flattered if asked, but right now he’s very happy being governor of Rhode Island.”

And what about Kass’ comment that Carcieri was the “point person on education” for America’s governors?

Neal said that Carcieri is a a cochairman of the National Governors Association’s committee on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.

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