Governor Pawlenty announced earlier today that he will not seek a third term. Most of the local pundits assume that he has ambitions for national office, although he’s going to have to work hard to keep himself in the spotlight. Mike Huckabee was a former governor when he ran for president and things didn’t turn out so well for him. Pawlenty might also try challenging Amy Klobuchar for her Senate seat, but he’ll have a tough time toppling a political figure who is generally seen as likeable and competent.
Pawlenty will finish his term having done little to make Minnesota a better place to live. He’s mostly muddled through, keeping his promise not to raise taxes (sort of), but otherwise demonstrating no real vision for the state. He did launch some promising initiatives to address homelessness and mental health, but those eventually had to be sacrificed at the altar of his anti-tax zealotry. Not even a collapsed bridge in downtown Minneapolis could convince him of the necessity of an incremental tax increase to fix our roads and improve our transit system. His last major act as governor, the coming unallotment, is going to hurt a lot of people who are already struggling. Not exactly a strong finish.
And whoever in the GOP candidate next fall is likely to be just as conservative as Pawlenty, if not more so.
