Rumor: Sarah Palin moving to Maricopa

According to a weekly newsletter from state Rep. Steve Farley (D-Tucson), Sarah Palin may be moving to Maricopa.

Farley wrote: “And as long as we are trading in rumors, I will leave you with an unwelcome one that I heard this afternoon from two separate reliable sources: Sarah Palin is considering moving to Bristol’s new house in Maricopa in order to run for Kyl’s Senate seat. Just what we need in our politics – another politician from out of state who believes that ideology trumps jobs, the economy, and common sense. Let’s hope the rumor is wrong.”

Farley later told the Arizona Republic that his sources were two Republican lobbyists.

Farley’s rumor comes on the heels of a blog post by Ben Smith of Politico. In the blog, Smith states that an unnamed source told him if there is a 2012 Palin presidential campaign, it might be headquarter in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“Alaska is an extremely difficult base for national politics,” Smith wrote, adding that headquartering her campaign office in Arizona would “hark back, perhaps not to McCain, more a Washington figure than an Arizona one, but to what now stands as the iconic campaign for many base Republican voters: Goldwater ’64.”

If Palin were to move to Arizona she may not find it the friendliest state. According to a recent pool of 599 Arizona voters, 57 percent have an unfavorable opinion of her, compared with 39 percent who view her favorably.