By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff

What seemed Monday to be a simple tout of a speech by 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin at a major party fundraising event this June unraveled into confusion, as a spokesman for the Alaska governor denied that she had even agreed to attend the dinner in Washington, D.C.

“I communicated with the governor directly and she did not know anything about it,” Bill McAllister, the governor’s spokesman, told the Anchorage Daily News late Monday evening.

The denial came just hours after the officials of the Republicans’ national congressional campaign committees sent out a release lauding Palin as the keynote speaker for the party’s annual Senate-House fundraising dinner, scheduled for June 8.

That statement was issued jointly by the Texas Republican lawmakers who head each of the committees, John Cornyn of the National Republican Senatorial Commitee (NRSC) and Pete Sessions of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh told the paper that Palin’s attendance was confirmed with the governor’s political staff at SarahPAC, the national political action committee that Palin established following her vice presidential campaign, and not with her official staff in the Alaska capital of Juneau. “So it’s understandable why there may be a miscommunication here,” Walsh said.

Sessions, who heads the party’s House campaign efforts for the 2010 election cycle, referred to Palin as “one of the brightest rising stars in the Republican Party” in yesterday’s release.

Palin achieved a high national profile in 2008 as running mate to the party’s presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain . While she drew many critics who described her as gaffe-prone and unready for such high office after less that two years as governor, her charismatic personality enabled her to build a base of followers among conservative voters. She is regarded as a potential 2012 presidential candidate but has been balancing her current duties as governor withm her future political aspirations.