SarahPAC Gains Fund-Raising Steam

A new report filed Sunday with the Federal Election Commission shows that the political action committee helmed by Sarah Palin took its fund-raising to a higher level in the second quarter of this year, which could suggest plans for a presidential run.

According to Politico, the report shows that Palin's PAC raised $866,000 in the second quarter, more than it raised in any three-month period since being formed in January 2009.

"The committee, SarahPAC, also spent nearly twice as much - $742,000 - as it had in any previous quarter, the lion's share of which went to the type of list-building and fundraising (including its first major direct-mail campaign) that typically undergird top-tier political committees," reports Politico. "It also reported its biggest-ever round of donations to candidates - $87,500 - and its highest outlays for travel costs, including $17,000 on private jet fare to crisscross the country for high-profile political speaking gigs, and speechwriting. It also showed continued payments for that speechwriting as well as foreign and domestic policy consulting, and its first ever payments to a scheduler."

Should Palin run for president in 2012, her potential rivals for the GOP nomination could include governors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Haley Barbour of Mississippi and former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.