Repost and reminder about this upcoming event…
On January 24, 2011, the MCRC is hosting an "Evening with Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty" (click here for flyer). Pawlenty is rumored to be a 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, to face-off against Barack Obama (or perhaps some other Democrat)?
Adding to the rumors, Gov. Pawlenty has spent quite a bit of time in Iowa and in New Hampshire over the past 6 months- and is planning to spend more time here. While standing at the Milford polls on September’s primary day, I was offered coffee and donuts by a nice young lady who was wearing a yellow and blue "Freedom First" shirt; of course this is Pawlenty’s active Freedom First PAC. I also saw Pawlenty speak at a Nashua reception for gubernatorial candidate John Stephen, and he took part in a number of other events that week, including an event for Congressman-elect Frank Guinta.
Pawlenty has been criticized for spending too much time out of his home state, during his final year as Governor, crisscrossing the United States assessing his support for a Presidential run. A poll taken in September, 2010, shows that a majority of Minnesotans are against his candidacy. Conversely, Minnesotans tend to favor Mitt Romney, the current front-runner of rumored Republican Presidential candidates.
Almost a prerequisite to running for President these days, Pawlenty has released a life-story and these are my principles book called "Courage to Stand" – and he is now spending quite a bit of time touring the nation on a book-signing tour.
Pawlenty attended law school, and served as vice-president of a software company, but his political resume is noteworthy. He was elected as a MN State Representative in 1992 (serving 5 terms), becoming House Majority Leader in 1998. He was elected governor of Minnesota in 2002, receiving %44.4 in a seven-party race (including a "Socialist-Workers" party) and 71% turnout, with the promise of "balancing the state budget, without raising taxes", as well as requiring visa expiration dates be shown on driver’s licenses, a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, and instituting a concealed-carry law.
It is worth noting that party leaders initially asked Pawlenty to stay out of the 2002 gubernatorial race, and he complied, but later re-entered the race, beating the party’s inside candidate, Brian Sullivan. Pawlenty ran for re-election in 2006, winning by less than 1%, and finding a new Democrat (DFL) majority in both the Minnesota House and Senate.
Pawlenty was one of the early names thrown around to be John McCain’s 2008 vice-presidential candidate, but apparently declined, choosing to honor his term as Minnesota Governor.
During his first term as MN Governor, he fulfilled his promise of balancing the state budget without raising taxes, doing it primarily by reducing the rate of funding increases for state services, although a number of fees, including State University tuition, were raised.
In his second term, he eliminated the state’s $2.7B deficit with spending cuts and one-time money use, with a DFL-controlled legislature. However, state budget officials claim that the deficit-reduction was only a short-term solution, and the state has a projected $4.4B shortfall in 2011, and up to $7B by 2013. Like many States, MN has an aging population that will increasingly rely on government services. Pawlenty insists that these estimates are "overblown". MN is required to balance their budget at the end of their biennium period.
Pawlenty’s second term also saw the challenge of his 2009 budget cuts as "exceeding his authority" as Executive. Certain local-aid and government services were trimmed (unalloted) by the Governor, outside the control of the Legislature. "Unallotments" by the Executive are allowed in MN, to react to "unanticipated deficits after the legislature has balanced the budget." Since the DLF-controlled legislature did not balance the budget (reportedly, the budget process was still ongoing), the MN Supreme Court ruled Pawlenty’s actions invalid (almost a year after the budget was created and unallotments were executed). Not being a lawyer or a judge, it is difficult to know whether this ruling made sense or not. It will be interesting to hear Governor Pawlenty’s view of this issue.
Minnesota now has a Democrat Governor, for the first time since 2003, when Pawlenty took the seat. It will be interesting to see how the State does going forward. It will be interesting to see how big the budget deficit really is, and how the DFL will surely blame Pawlenty for any of the troubles they have (a la Obama blaming Bush). I’m sure that if it falls back into fiscal disarray, Pawlenty will have another story to tell.
A few things are sure here: Pawlenty has a record of wanting to balance budgets without raising taxes (although he did raise some fees), and he is not afraid to cut government spending to do it. There is certainly some strife over his methods, as there always will be from opponents, but Pawlenty seems to head in the right direction for a Conservative like myself.
I have by no means decided to throw my support behind Pawlenty (or anyone) at this time. But I will be watching the Governor, as he continues to visit New Hampshire, looking for signs that I should or should not support him. He certainly has potential.
