Minn. Governor Locked in Dogfight

[Judi Lynn]

Minn. Governor Locked in Dogfight
By BRIAN BAKST, Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

(10-17) 11:31 PDT Saint Paul, Minn. (AP) --

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's approval rating is consistently above 50 percent, and most people in Minnesota tell pollsters the state is on the right track. Unemployment is low. And the mammoth deficit he inherited in 2003 is now a small surplus.

And yet, Pawlenty is either tied with or slightly trailing his Democratic challenger in the polls.

"It's not exactly the tailwind year for Republicans," Pawlenty said. "The headwind coming out of Washington is a challenge."

Pawlenty's opponent, two-term Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch sees an opportunity to snap the Democratic Party's four-election losing streak for the top job in the state that produced such Democratic giants as Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Eugene McCarthy.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/10/17/politics/p113117D23.DTL&type=politics



Pawletty, Democrat Mike Hatch

[truthisfreedom]

1. that's funny. Mike Hatch isn't even that popular...

but i'd vote for him in a heartbeat. i'm a D-Ticket guy. Minnesota has traditionally been totally Dem... it's only in the last few years we've seen the inversion to the dark side.

[Katzenjammer]

5. "Minnesota has traditionally been totally Dem"

Not so. There've been a lot of GOP governors. Of course until recently they've been the kind that Keillor wrote about: sensible, small-town businessmen with rimless glasses and a caring attitude toward other people.

[Infinite Hope]

6. Wrong...

Mike Hatch is very popular, especially among seniors. I won't say where, but I spent the summer running grassroots campaigns in parts of the state and he's popular even among many Republicans, again, especially seniors.

Minnesota's right-lean recently is as much fabricated as anything. Coleman won only after Wellstone, who was destined to win, died in a place crash a week before the 2002 election. Pawlenty won against 3 candidates from the left and took only a plurality of the vote. Arne Carlson, the popular Republican governor before Ventura, was a "Traditional Minnesota Republican." Traditionally, Republicans in Minnesota were generally liberal, though fiscally conservative.

[dflprincess]

2. I'm getting real tired of Pawlenty taking credit for

"balancing the budget" and winding up with a surplus. First, the state constitution requires a balanced budget. Second, let's talk about how he wound up with a "small surplus". Like those 30,000 people he cut off MNCare, the cuts to aid to cities so that local property taxes have gone up like crazy; the cuts to the state University and Colleges that have caused massive increases in tuition. Oh, I could go on and on.

I like Hatch, true, he's not cuddly and cutesy like Pawlenty, but you know where he stands and he's not always as liberal as I'd like, but he's never been a stooge for either special interests or the party.

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. The Surplus Is A Lie

They got it by calculating inflation to the revenues but leaving out inflation to the spending. We're the only state that does this with our budget. Since the anticipated revenues represent only 1.2 percent of the budget, and the projected inflation is 3.5 percent, expect huge deficits

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2005/12/the_fake_surplu.asp

[Lindacooks]

7. Yes, and by cutting, by more than 50%, state funding for child abuse

PREVENTION programs. That decimated the women's and children's agencies and shelters in the state, in 2003. Yet that got absolutely NO air time. I'd like to know exactly how that weasel considered that action 'Christian'.

Pawlenty is a prick, and voters know that his policies have hurt this state. We used to be fabulous in snow removal in winter as well, now it's much slower and the roads aren't very well taken care of.

[dflprincess]

9. And that other "good" Christian, Michelle Bachmann,

also voted for those cuts.

[bluestateguy]

3. I would caution people about this race

If Pawlenty has a 50+ approval rating, that could make it possibole for him to pull away in the polls in the last few days as people settle down with their choices and make up their minds.

[Lindacooks]

8. He may be above 50% in approval polls, but in the latest

election poll, Hatch was leading him by 9%: 46% to 37%, with 7% for the Indie.

[Infinite Hope]

10. But that was StarTrib's poll...

and their polls may be encouraging, but they are not accurate. They like SurveyUSA are almost always out of the ordinary. Anyone in Minnesota, despite our best hopes, know Pawlenty is not at 37%.