Governor Back On Stride?

2006 Elections Governor Pawlenty has been staggering and off pace most of 2005. He had a difficult legislative session, a government shutdown by democratic legislators and all of this led to a "fee" and a concerned and ireful base. As I mentioned yesterday, it will also lead to a "challenger" from the right when Sue Jeffers announces her run Monday. Pawlenty did a Q & A that appeared in the Saturday Red Star and I believe at least one of them demonstrates that he is getting some good advice and may be back on stride.

Q. How do you respond to critcism that by focusing on gay marriage and immigration you are playing "wedge politics," dividing rather than uniting. A. (Immigration) is not something I dreamed up for this reelection year. I ran on the immigration issue in 2002. In 2003 we had welfare reform with a substantial component being the denial of benefits to illegal immigrants. We've raised the issue of sanctuary laws in Minneapolis and St. Paul. I was in the middle of the opposition last year to a proposal to give illegal immigrants in-state tuition. So to suggest that I haven't been involved and this is just an election-year gimmick defies the fact. Secondly the suggestion that it's not a real issue is offensive. You really have to have very limited exposure to what's going on demographically to not see that it's having a meaningful impact.