Tim Pawlenty

By Stephen Fountain, Editor

Filed Under Race for White House 2008 on Aug 28 

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From the Office of the Governor:

TIM PAWLENTY is regarded as one of the nation’s most innovative, energetic, reform-minded and accomplished governors. Now serving his second term as the 39th governor of Minnesota, Governor Pawlenty has brought increased accountability to state government, held the line on taxes, improved K-12 education standards and made Minnesota a leader in energy reform.

Governor Pawlenty grew up in South St. Paul, Minnesota. The only child in his family to graduate from college, he attended the University of Minnesota (B.A., J.D.) and practiced law in the private sector. His public service career includes serving as a city councilmember and ten-year member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, including four years as House Majority Leader.

As Governor, he has balanced Minnesota’s budget three times without raising taxes, despite facing record budget deficits. Governor Pawlenty’s most notable accomplishments include proposing and signing into law significant new benefits for veterans and members of the military; enacting a property tax cap, eliminating the marriage penalty and cutting taxes; toughening the state’s education standards; reforming the way teachers are paid through a nation-leading performance pay plan; instituting free-market health care reforms that increase accountability and provide tax credits to encourage the use of health savings accounts; and implementing a plan to Americanize our energy sources by generating 25% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

Under Governor Pawlenty’s leadership, Minnesota leads the nation in a variety of measures. Minnesota ranks first among states in Fortune 500 companies per capita, first in overall quality of life, first in homeownership, first in percentage of residents with a high school diploma, and first in residents over 25 with a bachelors degree. Minnesota has the highest average ACT scores in the nation and was recently named the “Healthiest State in America.”

Pawlenty is the immediate past Chair of the National Governors Association and serves on the NGA Executive Committee. He is a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, the Achieve Inc. Board of Directors, and the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute Board of Directors. He is a former chair of the Midwestern Governors Association and the Governors Ethanol Coalition.

Governor Pawlenty still finds time for an occasional pick-up hockey game and enjoys running and reading. He and his wife, Mary, a former district court judge, have two daughters.

Comments

  • David Kaiser

    Drudge says it’s neither Pawlenty nor Romney…

    • AndDru1

      Here’s the site a pointed to before…

      ——-> http://www.mccainpalin.com

      …it seems it’s been updated :)

      • David Kaiser

        Unless there is a lot of trickery going on, Sarah Palin is still in Alaska, according to an ABC News Report.

  • AndDru1

    He’d be a great Vice President. McCain couldn’t do any better than Governor Pawlenty.

    • AndDru1

      I’m hearing it’s Palin. As you all know, that was my first choice.

      Hey Kaiser, feel free to retract any of my rebuttals to Keegan. I may have gone a little overboard, wouldn’t want him to really be upset.

  • Troy La Mana

    Nothing is a fact until it comes from the McCain camp.

  • kristen

    Hands down he has more experience than Obama. (But then again, most people do.)

    • Patrick Keegan

      And he’ll get demolished by Biden in the VP debate.

      Not sure that means much, but he’ll get crushed.

      • kristen

        VP debates don’t matter that much. And Pawlenty is not my first choice anyway.

  • Brian H

    Safe and dull is exactly what McCain needs. Anyone who wants a Presidential ticket that is all about flash and rhetoric is already a member of Flock-Obama.

  • Pdiddy

    looks now like he’s the choice, talk about safe and dull