Tim Pawlenty would be bad for Minnesota
Contrary to Brian Sullivan's claim that Tim Pawlenty offers the best opportunity for Minnesota, Pawlenty is demonstrably the worst possible choice among the four major party candidates.
Let's examine a few items from the Pawlenty campaign.
First, Pawlenty pledges he opposes any tax increase - period. This is a clear indication that the man is grossly ignorant, unflinchingly dogmatic holding stubbornly to impractical theories regardless the consequences, or simply lying. Voters understand that the many benefits we are afforded under our elected government cost real money, and that money does not grow on trees.
Ignorance is no crime, and the ignorant can be educated. But after 20 years in government, Pawlenty has no excuse whatsoever for being ignorant. Anyone who refuses to improve upon their ignorance seems a very poor choice for governor indeed. If he is an ignorant man, it's clear that Pawlenty would be bad for Minnesota.
Pawlenty would ruin all services which government provides -- instead of changing to meet the needs of the citizens of Minnesota -- simply to remain true to his ideology. For a select few of his followers Pawlenty presents a "pure" agenda, but most Minnesotans have lives complicated by reality. Pawlenty the idealogue is bad for Minnesota.
If a governor makes blatant lies to Minnesota citizens, there's little more to be said about it. Nobody wants such a governor. Again, it's clear that Pawlenty would be bad for Minnesota.
Anybody with common sense and the ability to balance a checkbook knows full well when the state is already running a budget deficit of more than $1 billion and many programs are already short of money, one cannot buy promised new education and transportation programs Pawlenty promises without raising taxes. So which are you, Mr. Pawlenty? An ignorant man, a dogmatist or a liar?
Second, Pawlenty complains that our transportation "system is 20-30 years behind." This comes as no surprise to anyone who has been commuting during those 20 years. What may be surprising is to learn Pawlenty and running mate Carol Molnau have year after year vigorously opposed spending needed to prevent or fix this problem during their tenure in the state legislature. As House Majority Leader (Pawlenty) and, Chair of the House Transportation Finance Committe and member of the House Transportation Policy Committe (Molnau), this pair had far more influence over the direction of transportation policy and funding the past 10 years than most other legislators. Today we reap the benefits of what Pawlenty and Molnau sowed.
In the most recent session, despite a growing cry from the public for solutions to highway problems, Pawlenty and Molnau stubbornly resisted increasing the gasoline tax, unchanged for 14 years while the price of gasoline, cost of living and other states' gas taxes increased. Molnau went so far in 2000 as to say that she did not believe congestion was a problem since she saw none while driving the highways everyday from Chaska to the capitol -- of course, that was at 5AM when most people are still asleep.
Clearly here are a pair of politicians who are uninterested in the problems faced by commuters, but rather interested only in themselves and their politics.
Third, the Pawlenty campaign itself is a good example of why Pawlenty would be bad for Minnesota. The campaign got caught red-handed breaking campaign laws, and was docked $700,000. A new Pawlenty TV ad stoops to a new low in dirty, dishonest attack ads by painting opponents as supporters of the terrorists of September 11. The ad states that accused terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui learned to fly in Minnesota -- a complete lie, as Moussaoui did not take even one flight lesson here.
Pawlenty's campaign for governor appears filled with dishonesty. He deceives voters about his real intentions by promising the impossible, such as no new taxes. Pawlenty claims that as governor he will work to solve problems he himself was responsible for causing as a legislator. This kind of politician is bad for Minnesota. Ken Pentel, Bob Moe or Tim Penny are all far better choices than Pawlenty.
In his inaugural address in 2003, Tim Pawlenty made the bold statement: "I am anti-lousy results."
Really?
Well, almost 4 years later, Pawlenty is bringing us Bush-like results to Minnesota. He even said, "I'd stand with President Bush if his approval rating was 2 percent."
On issues important to Minnesotans, Tim Pawlenty hasn't accomplished anything. From health care to education, his record is all about lousy results.Since becoming Governor
His record on health care is lousy:
- Pawlenty forced through budget cuts that led to 38,000 Minnesotans losing their health care.
- Over 94,000 more Minnesotans went without health coverage
- Pawlenty proposed cuts in programs providing health care to seniors on fixed incomes and even proposed cutting health care for low income Minnesotans.
His record on education is even worse:
- Pawlenty cut funding to K-12 schools by $185 million.
- Pawlenty cut funding to Minnesota's colleges and universities by $386 million.
- Tuition has increased at the University of Minnesota by a whopping 33%.We need a Governor who will stand for Minnesota, not with George Bush.
FARMINGTON, Minn. (AP) - Dozens of Jacquelynn Devney's Farmington High School classmates erected a 10-foot wooden cross in her memory after a driver crashed into her Thursday.
Devney was remembered as a farm girl that looked forward to starting college at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, who loved the color green and had a great
sense of humor.
...
The 18-year-old was killed while weeding a sidewalk trail along Pilot Knob Road here as part of her summer job with the city.
She was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 8:45 a.m., police said. The driver that hit her was going home after an overnight shift, fell asleep at the wheel and then drove onto the sidewalk.
There was no evidence of drug or alcohol use, said Peter Herlofsky, city administrator.
The driver wasn't injured. Police said the driver probably wouldn't be charged with any serious criminal charges.
Pawlenty vs. MPLS: Nice try, governorCity's budget guru dispels the myths behind T-Paw's bashing
Governor Tim Pawlenty was in full campaign mode this week, popping up on talk-radio shows of all kinds. Aside from hitting his talking points for re-election--calling for immigration reform, walking a fine line on any new stadiums, pumping up the state's employment numbers--Governor HockeyPuck gently poked at evil Minneapolis, always good for shoring up the state's conservative base.
Appearing on MPR on Tuesday, Pawlenty got specific on how Minneapolis should save money and put more cops on the street. Trouble is, the Governor's spouting had almost no relation to reality, let alone good governance.
Every politician under the sun has to play the public safety card these days, so it was no surprise that Pawlenty used a couple of recent murders--Uptown and downtown--to opine that what Minneapolis really needs is more cops and now.
Pawlenty disingenously insisted that cuts to Local Government Aid at his direction the last few years isn't what has caused a budget crunch in Minneapolis--forcing city leaders to shrink the MPD. Instead it was simply poor fiscal management. In short, he sang the GOP refrain heard 'round the state these days: Liberal leaders in the state's largest city are soft on crime and bad with checkbooks.
So Pawlenty offered a solution: The city should do away with its Civil Rights Department and Civil Service Commission, eliminate or consolidate its park police, and figure out a way to merge its library system with Hennepin County's.
Pat Born, the city's CFO who has helped steer the city away from financial catastrophe the last few years, reacts with bemusement: "If the governor is saying he sees ways in which that will save money, I'll gladly sit down with him."
For starters, according to Born, the city figures it will spend $75,000 a year on each new cop hired, allowing for salary and benefits, not counting equipment. The city's 2006 budget is $1.2 billion, with a general fund of $318 million. Of that, $107.5 million, or 35 percent, goes to the MPD.
"Police are already our highest priority," notes Born, who is more an apolitical number-cruncher than a political partisan.
