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Will McCain Turn to Minnesota For V.P.?
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Posted February 20, 2008 at 7:47 PM
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As it looks increasingly certain that the Republican presidential nominee will be John McCain, many Minnesotans are beginning to wonder if his running mate will be a Minnesotan.
If you don’t live in Minnesota, you may not have heard of Tim Pawlenty. He has been Minnesota’s governor since 2002 and has supported John McCain since he first announced his 2008 presidential bid. In fact, Pawlenty was a co-chair of McCain’s presidential exploratory committee.
When McCain visited Minnesota in April of 2006, Minnesota Public Radio reported that Gov. Pawlenty and Sen. McCain “sounded a lot like two guys who wouldn’t mind sharing a national ticket.”
Since then, speculation in Minnesota that Pawlenty might be McCain’s running mate has only increased.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently ran articles addressing the rumor of a possible McCain-Pawlenty ticket.
“Even through the McCain campaign’s darkest days in 2007, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty remained a steadfast ally to the Arizona senator in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination,” reported the Pioneer Press.
In an interview with the Pioneer Press, one Pawlenty supporter said there are several reasons Pawlenty would make a good running mate for McCain. First, 47-year-old Pawlenty is nearly a quarter-century younger than McCain. Second, he’s not from Washington. Third, he is from what some consider a battleground state.
But some people wonder if Pawlenty will really be an asset to McCain’s campaign.
Despite Pawlenty’s staunch support, John McCain finished a distant second behind Mitt Romney in Minnesota’s caucus on Super Tuesday.
“Noting that, the Minnesota DFL Party on Thursday issued a satiric press release touting Pawlenty as an ideal addition to a McCain ticket,” reports the Star Tribune.
So far McCain and Pawlenty have deflected rumors that Pawlenty will be McCain’s running mate.
In an interview with the Star Tribune, Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar of the American Enterprise wonders if McCain will hold off on announcing his running mate to create drama for the Republican National Convention, which will be held in St. Paul this September.
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