Nevada caucus 2012: Sarah Palin repeats call to vote for Newt Gingrich

By Tim Mak, ProPublica

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 | 12:40 p.m.

Sarah Palin on Tuesday said that if she was a caucus-goer in Nevada, she would vote for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, repeating a call she made in earlier states in the Republican presidential race.

“[I would vote for] whoever it is, to allow the process to continue. I still say that competition breeds success for the U.S. and that’s what we need in this debate … so I would continue to vote for whomever it is to allow the process. At this point it looks like Newt,” said Palin, the former governor of Alaska and a former vice presidential candidate.

Palin had said that she would have voted for Gingrich in South Carolina and Florida if she had lived in those states. She has not formally endorsed Gingrich.

Voting for Newt would “even the playing field with your vote and even the playing field allows additional vetting, that additional information about candidates and ideals and their goals for this nation,” Palin added.

She criticized the vitriolic nature of the attack ads in Florida, saying that they promoted “false narratives” and “a lot of negativity sure didn’t paint the party and the cause in very attractive colors.”

The negative atmosphere of the campaign, Palin argued, was off-putting to the electorate.

“Thus far [it] hasn’t been very attractive to the electorate. It unfortunately is what keeps good people from wanting to run for office and being engaged in their own government process of electing our leaders,” she said.

“When a bell is rung, it’s tough to unring that bell.”