Tim Pawlenty

DENVER -- In Minnesota for next week’s Republican National Convention, Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R-Richwood) told PolitickerKY.com that many of his colleagues expected a different pick for U.S. Sen. Jon McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential ticket.

“Most people up here thought it would be Romney or Pawlenty,” said Grayson, referring to two oft-rumored names: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Still, Grayson said Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – McCain’s actual pick – was in the “top five” and not a “total surprise.”

Grayson sees the McCain-Palin ticket appealing to many in Kentucky – a state which heavily favored U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) over the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the May primary. The second-term secretary of state argued many disaffected Clinton supporters could be attracted to McCain’s bid with the addition of Palin.

“I can’t help but think it’ll cause them to look at a McCain-Palin ticket,” said Grayson. “They were excited about having a woman president; maybe they will be excited about having a woman vice president.”

“It certainly won’t have people turning against the ticket,” added Grayson. “It will attract more votes from women.”

Few of the rumored Vice Presidential picks the now-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), could add to his ticket would help him much in the Commonwealth of Kentucky in November, according to a new SurveyUSA poll.

SurveyUSA compiled public opinion figures on sixteen potential ticket match-ups from May 16 and May 18 - before Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) handed Obama a 35 point defeat in Kentucky on May 20 and prior to Obama's attainment of the requisite delegates to clinch the nomination.

The data was released yesterday.

With that said, Obama's numbers in the new poll linger around the 33 percent support he received in an earlier Lexington Herald-Leader match-up poll against presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.). In that poll, McCain received 58 percent support.