There at the beginning — and maybe at the end, too

If loyalty ranks high on Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) checklist for a running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has to be on his short list.

The second-term Republican governor of a historically blue state jumped on board with the GOP presidential candidate all the way back in November 2006 and rode out the rough times late last year.

{mosads}The result has been a close, personal relationship between McCain and his national campaign co-chairman.

But if McCain is looking for a complement and someone who can deliver him a home state, Pawlenty is more of a mixed bag.

With vice presidential jockeying now in full swing, Pawlenty has been burnishing his conservative credentials on the national scene. They include signing conceal-and-carry legislation into law and setting a record for vetoes while facing a heavily Democratic legislature.

In a lengthy interview with The Hill, Pawlenty emphasized those parts of his record and defended other, less conservative aspects.

He called himself a “mainstream conservative,” but he has also reached out to groups not always thought of as core GOP constituencies, including environmentalists.

While facing opposition from the right in his first campaign for governor, he talked about Republicans being the party of Sam’s Club rather than just the country club.

Today, he clarifies that the GOP needs both in the current political environment.

“If you look at my record as a whole, it’s clearly conservative,” Pawlenty said. “This idea that it’s moderate is, I don’t think, a very full look at it.”

He also brings positive credentials as a young and affable public figure who comes from a working-class background. Concerns about McCain’s age — the GOP candidate would be the oldest president in history if elected — could be mollified by having a 47-year-old two-term executive on the ticket, and Pawlenty certainly has his cheerleaders.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) said it’s a mistake to come at a potential McCain-Pawlenty ticket from a strictly political perspective. Coleman calls Pawlenty “a really decent person” who is well-liked by nearly everyone who knows him.

“One of the key characteristics for a vice presidential candidate is for the president to be able to campaign and not worry about the vice president,” Coleman said. “Tim Pawlenty is as solid as you can get on a personal level, on a life-story level, on a confidence level.”

Apart from the age question, though, experts are skeptical that Pawlenty offers McCain much as far as delivering Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes or wooing key voter groups.

His two terms in a historically Democratic state are no small accomplishment, but Pawlenty has only decent approval ratings (around 50 percent in recent polling), and he hasn’t won a majority in either of his gubernatorial campaigns.

“Nationwide, I’m not sure what Pawlenty brings to the ticket for him,” said Hamline University Professor David Schultz. “I’m not sure if Pawlenty has the overwhelming support of either religious conservatives or business conservatives in ways that shore up those bases for McCain.”

{mospagebreak}McCain’s vulnerabilities with those groups are well-documented, and they include initially opposing President Bush’s tax cuts and referring to the Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as “agents of intolerance.”

Pawlenty took heat from economic conservatives when, in the midst of a government shutdown in 2005, after running on a pledge not to increase taxes, he signed into law a 75 cents-per-pack fee on cigarettes. He insisted it was a fee and not a tax, but the distinction was lost on many conservatives.

{mosads}And during his first campaign for governor, a primary opponent hit him for a vote he made as a state legislator that provided expanded rights to the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) community.

Pawlenty has since called that vote a mistake. He told The Hill that the legislation was too broad because it included other gender-identity groups such as cross-dressers. He said he wouldn’t vote for it today.

He also noted that he has actively opposed gay marriage in both the state legislature and governor’s mansion, and that he has vetoed domestic-partner benefits for gay couples.

Of the cigarette fee, he labeled it a last-resort compromise in the midst of a crisis.

“This was not something I had at the top of my list or wanted to do,” Pawlenty said, adding: “As people compare me to other governors, they have to keep in mind that this is a state in which I am bucking a very substantial … liberal tradition.”

That explanation doesn’t fully please everyone. Economic groups in general are lukewarm to Pawlenty.

The Club for Growth has taken note of the cigarette fee, as well as Pawlenty’s signing of a minimum wage increase, a statewide smoking ban and environmental regulations. He vetoed another minimum wage increase just recently.

“Gov. Pawlenty’s record is not as a solidly free-market and limited-government” as some other candidates’, said the group’s president, former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.).

Former state Rep. Phil Krinkie, who heads the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, still insists that Pawlenty’s fee was a tax. But he did praise Pawlenty for trying to reduce the growth of government and called his record “pretty positive.”

“He’s taken on a yeoman’s task in the last couple of years, trying to restrain the growth of government with large Democrat majorities in both legislative bodies,” Krinkie said. “We’re not a low-spending state.”

Minnesota is not a red state, either, and many are questioning whether it is technically even purple.

The state hasn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since 1972 — longer than any other state.

But even if the GOP does think it can win, it’s not clear that Pawlenty helps their case.

A February Rasmussen poll showed more Minnesota voters (35 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for a GOP ticket that included Pawlenty than would be more likely (29 percent).

A SurveyUSA poll earlier this month, though, showed a McCain-Pawlenty pairing beating several different combinations of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and a Democratic vice presidential candidate in Minnesota.

“Minnesota is uphill for Republicans this time around, but I think Tim Pawlenty would at least put it into contention,” said former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), now a lobbyist with Clark and Weinstock.

Pawlenty almost wasn’t part of the vice presidential chatter for the same reason as many GOPers — he barely survived 2006. A late gaffe from then-Attorney General Mike Hatch (D) in the gubernatorial race helped Pawlenty pull off a 47-46 win.

But if he does join McCain, he wouldn’t be the only one to have faced political death and avoided it.
“Politics is always like modern art,” Pawlenty said. “People can look at the picture and see different things and say this is why it happened or didn’t happen.

“It probably could have gone either way.”