Pawlenty Taking Hit Over Franken-Coleman Recount Battle?
An interesting dynamic worth keeping an eye on: Obama’s decision to tap Jon Huntsman as ambassador to China has got folks talking up Minnesota GOP Governor Tim Pawlenty for the 2012 Presidential race — right when he’s at risk of being damaged by the Minnesota recount mess.
A new Rasmussen poll in Minnesota sheds a bit of light on the predicament of Pawlenty, who’s getting hammered regularly by Dems who are insisting he seat Al Franken in the Senate.
The poll finds that a solid majority of 55% either strongly disapprove or somewhat disapprove of Pawlenty’s performance, versus only 44% who somewhat approve or strongly approve. That approval rating is lower than a poll last month that put his approval at 48%, which prompted the Star Tribune to ask whether Pawlenty is in the “danger zone.”
Meanwhile, today’s Rasmussen poll finds strong support for getting Franken into the Senate already. It finds that 63% believe Franken will prevail over Norm Coleman; that 54% say Coleman should concede now; and that 67% say Pawlenty should sign an election certificate naming Franken as the winner if the state Supreme Court rules his way.
The removal of Huntsman is getting Pawlenty talked about more for 2012. But paradoxically, it’s also increasing the stakes of the current recount battle for him and upping the incentive for him to hurry up and put it behind him.
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How much longer are they going to keep up this obstruction? It’s beyond any reason now – every court has told Coleman it’s over and he’s even under investigation and he still won’t concede. What an *******.
I hope it does come back and bite Pawlenty, hard, and if I lived in Minnesota, I’d be madder than hell at the entire GOP for this.
Just a couple of context facts: (1) The Rasmussen poll was conducted among 500 likely MN voters. (2) Yes, Tim Pawlenty is up for re-election in 2010; there is no term limit.
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So, if Tiny Tim wants to run for prez in 2012, he will have to worry about his re-electability.
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to what extent is he being damaged by Coleman mess and to what extent is it state budget woes? anyone have any insights?
Greg
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If I had to guess the budget woes would be the bigger driver but I think the Franken/Coleman situation isn’t doing him any favors either. And if he doesn’t sign the certificate after the state Supreme Ct fight I think his approval ratings will plumet. From what I understand from a couple people in Minnesoa the deal is that people in that state have a very independent streak and Pawlenty has kind of shown himself to be more partisan than they usually like. So while he screwed up the budget they could probably get over that as long as it doesn’t look like he is a puppet of the national GOP in the Senate race.
thx SG. Bottom line is, he’s gotta get this behind him…both for 2010 and for 2012, as JZap says.
BTW off topic but Ted Kennedy’s cancer is in remission and he is coming back to the hill to push universal healthcare.
Two links follow from today’s Star Tribune. Pawlenty has issued ultimatums, muscling his way around the budget, avoiding any tax cuts, and planning to use the line item veto and an “unallotment” process to cut state spending according to his own idea of what is expendable. This isn’t about Minnesota. Minnesota has always been a state that has supported quality of life spending. It’s about Pawlenty positioning himself nationally as an anti-tax Republican. I’m not up on the polling, but I would be very surprised if Pawlenty could win re-election here, though it would depend on what kind of candidate the Democrats run.
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http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/45266877.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUoaEaD_ec7PaP3iUiacyKUnciaec8O7EyUr
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http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/45398442.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUX
sg – yeah I read that about Sen. Kennedy – very good news.
This whole Franken-Coleman mess just goes to show ya how much the GOP has degenerated into an organized crime group. If you don’t survive tests of loyalty and do the bidding of the bosses (Limbaugh, Cheney), you are dead to them.
As much as I would love to believe these numbers, this is a Rasmussen poll. They have been somewhat unreliable this year. I haven’t look closely at the data but this one poll should be taken for what it is, a Rasmussen poll.
The Grand Panjandrum, think again. Rasmussen polls are unreliable at polling Democrats. They tend to have a built in bias against Democrats, so this poll on Pawlenty, a Republican, should be very alarming for Pawlenty and the Republican Party.
He might get some visability for the future if he runs in 2012, but I think that any GOP candidate will be a patsy, because I believe the country will want to keep President Obama, so the GOP will throw anyone to the wolves.
But if he is not reelected Gov, he can’t run for Pres.
Same for (ugh) Palin. They might run her just because she can get the poor fundies to give all their money.
The Republican party is desperate. If Franken is seated, none of their little schemes will come to fruition. They can dish it out, but they can’t take it. They’ll fight till the last dog is dead, no matter how stupid they look in the process.
The Dem’s have a strong field of candidates to oppose Mr. T Paw. Most have everything that is needed to run an effective campaign
Every day that passes without Franken in the Senate is a victory for the Re THUG LIE CONS. They will take this to the Supreme Court and hope for a Bush v. Gore-type, conservative-majority, mind-bending interpretation of “the law” and fairness, Coleman, and Pawlenty be damned.
They’ve already set up at the heart of their argument the exact same 14th Amendment-based argument that the conservative Supremes used to install B@#h as our President. They seemed to have missed the unprecedented part of the Bush v. Gore ruling that said that decision couldn’t be used as precedent in any other case but count on the conservative Supremes to ignore their own ruling if they can get away with it.
Pawlenty has parotted Bush for his entire term. While state legislature was dominantly Rep, it was a spending spree unlike anything every seen in MN. Now, Dems are the majority and suddenly all things must be ‘reigned in’. Dems are trying to hold onto hospital, elderly care, child health, education funding which the Paw, the great obstructionist, will likely seek to cut. Sound familiar?
And Rasmussen is a Republican poll which is always slanted toward THEM!
They had better get their act together, or they REALLY WILL be punished by the PEOPLE!!!!!!!!
Durn. I wish’d Al Gore had held on this long.
The Senate should invoke reconciliation (simple majority to cut off debate) until Senator Franken is seated. Then all the pressure will be on the governor to certify.
WE ALL NEED TO START SENDING WHATEVER MONEY WE CAN TO FRANKEN’S LEGAL TEAM … MONEY IS ALWAYS NEEDED.
Minnesota voter here. The reason that Minnesota doesn’t have Democrats across the board in all the significant offices can be explained by the fact that we have a strong third party presence. The Minnesota Independence Party won the governorship back in 1998 with Jesse Ventura. Since then, that party hasn’t been able to get any plurality in any offices. But the MIP generally runs some attractive “good government” candidates. These MIP candidates siphon off enough of the responsible voters, enough to allow the GOP to build a plurality with their gun-nuts, anti-tax, anti government, single issue anti-abortioners, and the ilk. I don’t include the GOP voters as deep thinkers. Anyway, that is why we have Pawlenty (no new taxes), Bachmann in the 6th District. And why Franken won by only a small plurality because so many “good government” votes (about 15%) were wasted when the MIP votes opted for Former Senator Barkley.
Pawlenty’s poll numbers are sinking. How can we hurry that up to the point they are SUNK? He has turned uout to be an obstructioninst prick on most issues that we Minnesotans care about.
Now he refuses to raise taxes to cover a looming deficit just so he can claim the Dems want to raise your taxes. In the meantime, our schools, parks and roads will suffer.
It is time for him to go.