Tim Pawlenty

August 29, 2008

John McCain has Tim Pawlenty on his short list. So, who is Timothy James Pawlenty? He is the 39th and current Governor of Minnesota and a member of the Republican Party. In the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 2002, as the Republican nominee, he was elected Governor of Minnesota and inaugurated on January 6, 2003. He was re-elected in 2006, and his second term will end on January 3, 2011. As Governor, he has become well known for freezing taxes by cutting funding for programs that were purported to help the poor.

Tim comes from a state that’s not noted for it’s Republican background and that just may be part of the reason John McCain picked him- to try and put Minnesota in the RED STATE ranks.

Tim is proud to talk of his roots. He recently said, “I’m the son of a truck driver and a housewife from a meatpacking town, who wants to provide a better quality of life for ordinary folks without growing government.” This doesn’t sound like conventional Republican roots, but what’s convetional these days anyway?

Tim Pawlenty says his record is more than just stopping bad ideas. He believes he has stood by the no-new-taxes pledge he took as a candidate, despite having signed a cigarette tax hike that he claimed (and state courts later agreed) was “a health impact fee.” He now says the levy “was a bad idea” but notes that it was a way to solve a nine-day government shutdown: “We blocked a lot of other taxes by holding fast everywhere else.”

Gov. Pawlenty’s tenure can be divided into two parts. In 2003, he roared into office facing a huge budget deficit which he closed by passing a no-growth budget. He signed laws establishing a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, tax-exempt zones for depressed rural areas, and allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. And Pawlenty has those conservative credentials that will make the far right Republican base happy.

In February 2008, columnist Robert Novak wrote that Pawlenty was the most conservative Minnesota governor since Governor Theodore Christianson in the 1920s. That’s a long, long time ago.

Soon we’ll know who McCain chooses for his VP.

Written by Ernie · Filed Under Election News