Last week, the Republican Governors Association held a conference outside Austin where the group predicted that the ideas-oriented campaigns of Chris Christie and Bob McDonnell would serve as harbingers of the 37 gubernatorial races next year--an issue I touched upon in a piece a few weeks ago. While Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, the chairman of the committee, is coming out as the public face of the RGA, the real brains behind the group seems to be executive director Nick Ayers. Click here to read about how he is angling the RGA to lead the Republican comeback.