Cantor aides deny new PAC is about VP run

Aides to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) pushed back on a report that a new super-PAC was being set up to help Cantor run for vice president, telling The Hill that's not how it works.

"The notion that you could run a super-PAC to get somebody nominated for vice president, I don't know how you do that," said John Murray, Cantor's deputy chief of staff. "That doesn't strike me as something that would be very possible, and that's not what this exercise is about."

Cantor's office confirmed Wednesday that Murray will be leaving Cantor's congressional office to start the PAC, but said the goal of the PAC will be to build on the momentum of the GOP's "Young Guns" program that helped the party take control of the House in 2010.

Murray said the PAC will be independent from any member of Congress and will support center-right candidates and policies based on a pro-growth, free-market agenda in line with the "Young Guns" program.

Cantor and others in the GOP leadership built the program during the 2010 campaign season to court and support a new wave of Republican candidates to pick off centrist Democrats in vulnerable districts.

An earlier report suggested the PAC was being set up to raise Cantor's profile as a possible vice presidential candidate.

"You get picked for VP, you don't run," Murray told The Hill.

Cantor has been mentioned repeatedly as a possible 2012 VP pick and even a possible presidential candidate; he holds a powerful place in the GOP leadership as the No. 2 Republican in the House.

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