Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty Ap Photo/Jim Mone
For the last few years Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has been a rising star in the Republican Party. Most political pundits had him the consensus pick to be John McCain’s VP candidate in 2008, as Pawlenty hailed from a battleground state and was the national Co-Chair of McCain’s campaign. Why McCain picked Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin over him is a question we do not know, but given the political climate of 2008 it was extremely unlikely that any GOP ticket was going to give the Obama campaign any serious trouble.
If that is the case Pawlenty may have declined an offer to run with the Arizona Senator. Saving himself from the shame of a lost national campaign. This is a lesson Palin is learning now, history does not judge the losers of national campaigns all that well.
Pawlenty is a very attractive conservative candidate. In terms of GOP candidates he is on they younger side at 49, which is way on the young side considering who the GOP has nominated in recent years. On top of that Pawlenty seems to be a throwback conservative in the style of Ronald Regan or Dwight Eisenhower.
Before we take a look at his politics, a quick look at his personal details:
Age-49
Family- Wife Mary, two children
Religion- Evangelical Christian
Politics- Fiscal Conservative appeals to more conservative wing of the GOP
Experience- Pawlenty is a home grown Minnesota politician, rising from the city starting off in politics as a city council member, then a Minnesota House Rep., then Majority Leader in the Minnesota house, and finally Governor of Minnesota.
While Governor of Minnesota Pawlenty has revealed is more pragmatic nature. While he takes a strong conservative approach to many issues, he balances that with a real world approach on how best to improve his state. He used state money to fund many projects such as a new Stadium for the Minnesota Twins and a new football field for the University of Minnesota.
One of his biggest accomplishments as Governor came as he solved a 4.3 billion dollar state deficit without raising taxes. He was able to do this by reducing the rate of growth for state funded services. This is where his policies most resemble President Eisenhower, they both think less taxes and balanced budgets are the way to keep an economy strong.
A big plus for Pawlenty is his support of Ethanol. Since the first test a Presidential candidate must face is the Iowa Caucus Pawletny's stance will be very popular there. As Governor of Minnesota he changed laws that allowed the minimum mandated mixture of all gasoline to contain Ethanol from 10% to 20%. He has recently signed legislation that will increase that number to 25% by 2013.
Pawlenty’s biggest detraction is he is relatively unknown on the national stage. In a straw poll of potential GOP candidates for 2012 conducted the day after the 2008 election Pawlenty managed only to draw about 1% of the vote.
His second term as Governor will end in 2010 and he will then be free to start raising his National profile. If he is to have a chance in 2012 he will need to get out there and shake a lot of hands and kiss a lot of babies as soon as he is not Governor of Minnesota.
Other Possible GOP 2012 Candidates
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