Commentary; Posted: 6/21/06
In governorís race, table almost set
T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter
The endorsement of Attorney General Mike Hatch by DFL activists closed the ìWhoî chapter of the governorís race.
We now know who: Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Hatch, Independence Party Peter Hutchinson, and Green Party Ken Pentel.
True, Hatch faces a primary challenge from Sen. Becky Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, who apparently is intent on one and cannot be dissuaded by sweet talk.
But Loureyís poor showing was the surprise of the convention. And itís to be wondered how her candidacy will fare in the thinner air outside the Mayo Civic Center.
Parallels exist between the 2006 governorís race and the race four years ago that elevated Pawlenty from House majority leader to chief executive.
Pentel is back. But Pentel, a good candidate, won just a shade over two percent of the vote four years ago.
And the Green Party is now a diminished party ó no longer considered major.
It seems plausible that Pentelís vote count will go down rather than up.
Hutchinson, too, is a good candidate. But does the party still have a luster?
Former congressman Tim Penny donned the partyís mantle four years ago, a feathered boa, and for a spell seemed to be in a position to win.
But in the end, Pennyís 16-points while respectable ó and indispensable to Pawlenty, some argue ó seemed to confirm that third party chemistry tends to be more explosive than stable.
That doesnít rule out another explosion.
Hatch and former senate majority leader Roger Moe, the DFL gubernatorial candidate four years ago, are not wholly dissimilar.
Neither Hatch nor Moe ever tickled much of a bounce out of the ìWarm and Fuzzyî meter while Pawlenty has company engineers working on additional capacity.
But Hatch, who won more votes in 2002 than Pawlenty, with a wisdom or frankness has surrendered the Chief Nurturer role in favor of Chief Executive.
Itís more than that: itís Chief Fixer ó a guy who knows the angles and can swim with the sharks because heís a bit of one himself.
(It is better to be feared than loved, concluded Machiavelli.)
Sure, the public may rather have a beer with that ìtalk show hostî Tim Pawlenty, Hatch recently explained. But when someone wants something done, they know who to come to, he concluded.
They come to Mike Hatch.
Of course, this bravado is useful if voters feel a strong need for a change.
The economy, while not great, is chugging along, to use a Pawlenty description.
Property taxes have gone up. In some places, way up.
Democrats blame Pawlenty for this.
Yet Minnesotans, whose fixation with the weather touches the religious, do not take to streets to burn the weatherman in effigy every time it rains. Whether Democrats can sell their equational attack remains to be seen.
And just to offer one more agonizing variable, if voters are incensed will the discontent help Hutchinson rather than Hatch?
Anyway, former deck hand Hatch has already gone after Pawlenty on a personal level, half-jokingly last weekend that no one has ever accused him of being overly cautious.
The governorís race will not lack zest. And what of Pawlenty?
He returned from outstate shortly after being elected sporting a new haircut, a new look, that may have symbolized something, at least to himself ó the husking of the old for the new, perhaps.
But recently Pawlenty has sounded much like his old self: same-sex marriage, the death penalty, other conservative standards.
Of course, Pawlenty slowly morphed on the issue of Northstar Commuter Rail ó he derided rail transit to the Republican convention but later made Northstar funding a bonding bill priority.
If Hatch is a man of action, the governor at the very least is nimble.
Itís to be wondered which approach better staves off exhaustion.
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