Wayne Cox of Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice has a must read op-ed in the Star Tribune today about why John McCain would be wise to pick someone other than Tim Pawlenty as his running mate. I’m not going to excerpt it, because you should read the whole thing.
I want to add, however, that Minnesota Republicans should root against a Tim Pawlenty VP nomination for one simple reason: Carol Molnau. If Gov. Molnau (shudder) were to run the state as poorly as she ran MN DOT, she would hand the DFL the Governor’s office not just in 2010, but for a generation. And with near super-majorities in both Houses of the Legislature and redistricting just around the corner, the MN GOP could be in for a long winter.
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Agreed. The MN GOP also seems to have a pretty short bench when it comes to future Gubenatorial prospects. If they dump Molnau, who do they go to then? Pat Anderson? Laura Brod? Marty Seifert? Jason Lewis? Jim Ramstad? This “long winter” you refer to will be worsened by their lack of up-and-coming talent.
Norm Coleman (assuming he loses this fall) may be their best bet.
Tim Pawlenty has been a great governor (for those of us who prefer fiscal restraint) and losing him would be a big loss.
Timmy ain’t no fool, that’s for sure. He did align himself with the oldest candidate ever to run for Prez.
If Ramstad would want the job, he would be great. Norm Coleman would be good too.
There is plenty of young talent coming up. Geoff Michel, John Berns, and Pat Garafolo come to mind. And then you have experienced moderates like Dennis Ozment and Ron Erhardt who might not be as far to the Right as Pawlenty but would really resonate with the typical Minnesotan, much in the same way Arne Carlson did.
History will show that Pawlenty was one of the most effective Governors we had. He brought reason and intelligence to the office, not just a bleeding heart. I’m not saying every future Governor has to be a mirror image of him, but I respect the job he has done.
What makes PawLenty “the most effective governor?”
You better define your terms if you are going to make silly statements like that.
If its about bridges falling down on his watch — he’s be at 100%.
Normy going for Gov? Which means you are resigning that he will lose the senate seat he stole on the back of Wellstone’s death.
Would that Governor be important enough for his wife?
And could ANYONE stand to see his lame grin that often?
AND let’s get back to Molnau…
Will they replace her before then?
Or will they hang her out there to muck up the rest of the state while finishing out his term, if Timmy goes to Washington?
Anyone else in her place, then moving to Gov - would be an UNELECTED governor.
No wonder he wants to downplay the bridge collapse!
He’s in a corner.
mockingbird -
I won’t get into an intelligent discussion with somoene like you who spews your party’s extreme propaganda. Weaving the bridge collapse, Wellstone’s death, and Coleman’s wife into the same two threads? Wow. You really have the talking points down.
Mockingbird:
“They” will not replace Molnau as Lieutenant Governor, because they cannot. (By “they,” I assume you mean Pawlenty.) Article V, Section 5, of the Minnesota Constitution states that the “last elected presiding officer of the senate shall become lieutenant governor in case a vacancy occurs in that office.” Meaning if Molnau resigns as LtGov, Senator Jim Metzen becomes LtGov. If TPaw is then elected VP (which won’t happen), we’d have Governor Metzen, a pretty bizarre prospect. So I don’t think TPaw would let Molnau resign as LtGov, even if (when) she gets fired as MnDOT Commish. “Governor Molnau” is a very real (and frightening) possibility, although, as stated earlier, McCain would have to be elected President, which won’t happen, so I guess it’s a moot point.
Here’s our Constitution:
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/cco/rules/mncon/mncon.htm
Read up.
Geoff Michel would be an interesting option. I wish the DFL had been able to knock him out in 2006.
“the senate seat he stole on the back of Wellstone’s death.”
Would that be the same Senate seat that Wellstone tried to win after he promised he wouldn’t run again? Hard to steal it from Wellstone when he shouldn’t have been running in the first place.
Thanks for doing the research El Gaupo.
Even if Molnau somehow ended up Governor, it would be to simply fill out the term. Most moderate Republicans I know weren’t fans of hers when she was in the legislature, not to mention now with all of the negative press.
Whether she deserves all the criticism or not, she is now damaged political goods.
Here’s the kicker - does Tim Pawlenty resign if he get nominated as the GOP VP candidate? I mean, if he has a session where he vetoes everything and then jets around the country laying groundwork for ‘12, I bet his party will just love him down-ticket.
All the talk about Pawlenty on the ticket is just Dem’s who like to try to trash him.
In reality you have to think the likelihood of him being on the ticket are about 1%. I doubt Minnesota is going to vote for McCain either way and his low name recognition really doesn’t help on a national basis.
John S - while I agree with you totally, I’ll just point out that I’m sure there are citizens in Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, and New York who aren’t too happy with their elected officials never being around either. :)
Great point, Max, and I’m also willing to guess that Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale both were conspicuously absent during certain periods of their terms as Minnesota Senators.
I bring it up because I remember there was some serious discussion in 2000 when Leiberman was running that he should resign .There was the matter that if they had won, correction, if their win had counted, that it would be a case of a Republican Governor appointing a new Republican Senator to fill his place.(Okay, kind of ironic)
The current Presidential’s enjoy large support in their states. So did Mondale and Humphrey here, in their times. Tim Pawlenty only got a second term due to Mike Hatch being enough a prick that he drove the Metro uber-left to Hutchinson. Its a different case, and now for the name y’all didn’t mention: Wendall Anderson. He was a popular governor (like Pawlenty) and one who built the state instead of letting it fall apart. But when he stepped outside of Minnesota nice and let his ambition show, well gosh durn it if the voters here didn’t crucify him.
Point being - its one thing for it to be thought that Timmy has some higher ambitions. But showing ambition in public just isn’t Minnesotan! And dropping your current job to campaign for a higher one, thats ambition.
And I discovered I was a little wrong on the details. Mondale did give up his seat when Carter tapped him, and Humphrey never had an election where he had as small a share of the vote as 55% (As opposed to T-Paw, whose never had more than 47%). So again, if Pawlenty’s tapped, which isn’t beyond the bounds of possibility, what does he do?
John S -
I don’t understand your logic. So are you saying that Betty McCollum (69% of the vote in her most recent election) has earned more of the right to slack off in her current role than, say, Tim Walz (52%)?
I said nothing about ‘slacking off’. Stop being Brodkerb and making stuff up out of thin air.
The logic on election percentages is this: someone with Humphrey’s numbers trying to be VP? The people see that as ‘doing your patriotic duty’ or ‘being called for higher things’. Someone with Pawlenty’s trying to leave the job early? They might call it ‘slacking off’. Since you’re the one who described running for higher office as ‘slacking off’, I think I might be on to something.
I’m being realisitic about human nature. Yeah, Humphrey ran off and ran for President in 1960, a year he was up for re-election. But Humphrey had never had a majority of the state vote for someone else. Pawlenty’s never had a majority of the state vote for him. His actions will thus likely get viewed with more suspicion, and less trust.
I don’t think the lack of a majority hurts at all, for a few reasons.
1. Minnesota typically has had a very active 3rd party presence, so it is harder to pull a full majority of the vote. Heck, two of the governors in the last 15 years have been from 3rd parties (Jess and technically Arne).
2. In the last election, Tim bucked a Democratic landslide and won. The 47% he pulled was not weakness, it is viewed as strength, especially when people like Klobuchar were pulling 59% against well-known opponents in this state.
3. Not every national politician dominates his home state. Bill Clinton lost his re-election bid as Governor, the only incumbent ever to do so in that state (his terms were non-consecutive — he would win again four years later).
I actually hope Pawlenty doesn’t become the VP. I’d like him to run for a 3rd term. Wouldn’t mind a different Lt. Gov, though.
If little timmy is picked for the VP slot, we will have very little to worry about. McCain and whomever are going to see a GOP loss of biblical proportions. But if little timmy is in the VP slot, he will have shown he cares very little for the people of Minnesota and is after forwarding his agenda of higher office.
“But if little timmy is in the VP slot, he will have shown he cares very little for the people of Minnesota and is after forwarding his agenda of higher office.”
The same would have to go for Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, who both were representing the people of Minnesota throughout their campaign for higher office.
DanTheMan-
It would be nice if we had more of a middle on this blog. Richard’s going to have a negative view of Pawlenty, based on past evidence (I will too, of course) so he’s not the best test of the theory. We’ll see when it happens, and when the Independents weigh in.
Plus, wouldn’t Minnesota always having a 3rd party presence make it all the more noteworthy that the only the two Minnesota elected officials to run for higher office and not get dinged for it were ones who consistently scored well north of 50 in all of their elections?
Point being, if I’m Tim Pawlenty, I’m thinking long and hard about this. I’m wondering whether my opportunity to get face time with Republicans nation-wide by riding on the back of a better man could end up biting me in the butt.