Beating the bushes for Bush

There was a time when Nevada governors, given Nevada’s dubious reputation, weren’t exactly sought as surrogate campaigners. But now that most states are gambling states, that seems to have changed.

Gov. Kenny Guinn toured the nation campaigning for George Bush in places like Columbia, Miss., often in the company of a couple of other GOP governors.

Guinn and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns traveled to the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, where they found themselves overshadowed by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who joined them there. Romney is being touted as a presidential contender himself.

“He’s the governor of John Kerry’s home state, so he got a lot of attention,” Guinn says of Romney. “When we went to Port Huron, in Michigan, he got more attention because his father was governor there.” (George Romney served as governor of Michigan from 1962 until he joined the Nixon cabinet in 1969.)

However, Romney may have been brought to earth when people arriving at one function handed him their tickets at the door.