Carey Coronates Pawlenty for 2010
As we all know, the chances of Pawlenty staying in the Governor’s mansion here in Minnesota if McCain gets the nomination are about as good as me winning the Twin Cities marathon. But there’s a story where his former campaign head and Ron Carey try to deflect the notion.
It’s no secret that Pawlenty, one of a few Republican governors to survive the Democratic sweep last November, is on the lists of “mentionables” for a possible vice-presidential bid in 2008.
Now, being able to stave off the Democratic wave was impressive but…. I won’t go there.
Pawlenty has said that he is committed to serving out his term but has made no unequivocal declaration that he is unavailable as a vice-presidential candidate.
Hence I coined the term ‘McPlenty©’.
But Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman is blinded by Pawlenty’s smoothness so much that he has already promised the 2010 Gubernatorial nomination to Pawlenty.
More important, Carey said, is that Pawlenty probably will be the best GOP candidate for the job.
And now you can see why I don’t trust this new ‘reformed’ Carey one bit. He is paying lip service to complaints about his performance, doesn’t even grasp that the Republican base is upset with the Governor on some major spending issues and agenda items, and he ran for Chairman on a platform that would let the base decide the candidates.
Well, as long as we choose Governor Tim Pawlenty, that is. Sue Jeffers ran against Pawlenty in 2006, and made just about every rookie mistake one could make when running for office. But she was representing a growing portion of the Republican party that was upset with the direction of Republicans in office. I did not support her as I felt she got into the battle way too late.
But Ron Carey orchestrated an assault against Jeffers even before the endorsement. He did everything in his power to make sure that Pawlenty faced no threat of embarrassment. He wanted Pawlenty to skate through the process, and low and behold, that happened. I’ve been told that they denied her the chance to speak at the State convention because she may have pushed it to a second ballot, and have weakened Pawlenty. Orders were also sent out to Congressional Districts to deny her the chance to speak at their conventions, again I was told.
That was Ron Carey then. After his December mea culpa, and the ‘task force announcement, he’s played a pretty good game of pretending he will not repeat his same mistakes. But…..
Here we are, four years away from the next Gubernatorial race, and he’s already giving the warning. You will not challenge Governor Pawlenty, he represents us, no matter what. Well, if Pawlenty caves on his recent no new taxes verbal statement, he can forget about it. If he does not ‘play goalie’ as the DFL fires spending increases, he can forget it. If he signs the state wide smoking ban, he can forget about it. If he continues to throw money down the rat hole of the soon to be dubbed E-12+ education he can forget about it. If he continues to redefine conservatism to fit his populist image, he will not get it.
It is way too early for Ron Carey, the Chairman of the Republican party of Minnesota to have guaranteed the endorsement in 2010 to Pawlenty. ‘Probably’ my arse. Has Carey not learned anything? No he hasn’t, and everyone is still apologizing for him. This would have been a fine time for Carey to prove he is not the lapdog of Gov. Pawlenty, but…. what did you expect? I’m just dying to see if Carey follows Pawlenty down the McCain trail. A lot of respected Republicans in Minnesota have already saddled up to the ‘Maverick one’ and are organizing a campaign for him in Minnesota. To that I say Booo!
Carey is terrified of crossing the Governor in public, and that is why I do not trust him to lead this party.
FTR: Is Pawlenty the worst Governor ever? NO! Is he the worst Republican Governor ever? No!
But he is not the picture perfect example of what the Republican Party of Minnesota stands for. He has his own agenda, and he is going to see to it to accomplish as much as he can, no matter what side of the spectrum his ideas belong to. That’s fine, he’s doing what HE feels is best. He is the Governor of the entire state, and one would expect the other party to at least consider your ideas. (One would hope.)
That does not mean the Republican Party of Minnesota has to follow Pawlenty down every road he travels. If he really wants the Republican endorsement for 2010, he should have to earn it, not have it handed to him by the Party Chair, Ron Carey.
Isn’t Carey saying that TP might be the best VP candidate? That’s the way I read your quotes, at least. If you are reading it correctly, I agree with your assessment, but… I would say that Carey is again telling it just like it is. Unless somebody better comes along, Pawlenty WILL be the strongest candidate. I can’t see not endorsiing the only person running, or not endorsing the best (most electable AND conservative) if given a choice. Given the choice, I would have endorsed Pawlenty02 over Pawlenty06.
He’s talking about MNGov.
And if he was talking Presidential, he;d be out of line. The 3 elected officers on the Ex. Comm.(CArey, Hoplin, and Sutton) are barred (as I understand it) from any involvement in the pimping for candidates. It’s negotiable I suppose on the 4 year out pledge of endorsement for Pawlenty as to whether carey has crossed an official line, but just further proof that he is a sock puppet chair and Pawlenty is pulling the strings. I still have yet to see one single public display that Ron Carey’s MNGOP is not a wholey owned subsidiary for Pawlenty.
What’s next, Ron Carey calls a press conference to advocate for Pawlenty’s Universal-Lite health care? Better yet, he can call one about how, one time… 4 years ago ….. we had a 4.5 Billion dollar budget deficit… and Pawlenty solved the problem.
Meanwhile, some of us in the party have seen how he spent the next 2 and a half years trying to get that money back, not to mention making a few legislators takes stands they didn’t want to, which led to them getting ousted.
The biggest problem with Chairman Carey already closing the nomination for 2010 is that no one will dare step up to the plate. What if Pawlenty gets his entire agenda through? Are you still going to just hold your nose and vote for him? now is the time for our party to fix itself. We can’t continue to just limp along and expect everything to be alright.
Carey doesn’t give a rip that he looks like a bumbling idiot. Hello, Its the second goll darn week of the session and what, 2 press releases. Nothing about the major speech last night. Nothing about all the DFL agenda items. Nothing about what the Republican response is. Is he just going to mail it in, and not even try to inform the public of the differences between the party?
Because it sure as heck seems like he is willing to let:
1) the Sen. Republicans not say a single word
2) the House Republicans think whining about severance packages are more important than stopping the billion dollar spending increases, despite the fact that we pump hundreds of millions into them every year for trivial schtuff
3) the Governor define what it means to be conservative, even if, his big spending big Government ways are against what is the most important difference between us and the DFL.
Just when the heck is someone going to figure Ron Carey is in way over his head. He has assumed complete control of the party, but has no clue what the party does. It is more than an election machine. And since we have only skeleton minorities in the Capital, it is crucial that the party help spread the word. Oh, and just so you know, spreading the word is not just pointing out whatthe DFl said. Heck, we did that in the 06 election, the DFL owes us one, Ron Carey did a heck of a job getting the DFL message out. The problem was, voters were never given the GOP alternative.
But then again, what do I know? ….. I know that I am terrified of duplicating the results of the 06 election in 08.
There are more good ideas being come up with outside of the MNGOP umbrella then with in it. One of the CDs is not even waiting to find out what these ‘task forces’ will propose
Carey to ignore in 08 when the RNC starts calling. They’ve taken it upon themselves… oh wait, never mind, wouldn’t want to give away the secrets.Anyways, as you can tell, I am getting more and more worried everyday.
I think you have cause for concern, and I agree with most of it. I think you read too much into Carey’s simple statement of fact about 2010, but I agree that we should be “saying” more about the outrageous DFL agenda, and about Pawlenty’s seemingly outrageous agenda. I like what I hear from Marty Seifert, and his anti-crime proposals are brilliant, IMHO. We need more of that kind of effort but I don’t think the State Party is ready or able to do that, yet, and never really has, to my way of thinking.
Here’s the thing that I’ve learned over a great many years, and applies to all organizations. Good people, trying as hard as they can, cannot overcome a bad “system,” and produce bad results. In such cases, you don’t get rid of the good people, you fix the system. I think the task forces (and probably the CD) will get us started on that essential process.
Part of the problem is we live in a system where the one constant (the party) does nothing to have a reputation if you will. We let the politicians define what we are… meaning we are what ever the loudest one of is. No thanks
Well, who let that happen in the last election? Carey was in for 18 months before the election, and he didn’t do squat to hold Republican officials accountable to the platform, like he promised he was going to do when he was running. He caved to the pressure of the position, which in my mind is not something to be rewarded or overlooked.
I on the other hand, am not willing to give Ron Carey absolution. He messed up big time, and he did things he had promised he wouldn’t have done. He’s a micro manager of the worst kind, he has no clue what he is doing. He’s a follower, not a leader.
The biggest problem is he just rolled over for a few select candidates. What do you think the chances of evern fielding someone to run in the 7th or 8th is now? Do you think ANYONE is even going to be willing after they saw how Carey completely ignored them?
He’s only in it to win, and he will go where ever he has to to do that. Hmmm, kinda like Pawlenty and Ramstad.
Anyways, I’m not so sure Carey is good at what he does. Come one, what is there as proof he is good at leading us?
Oh and Carey’s plan to fix our woes by taking over complete and total control of everything, yeah, I’m not real comfortable with that. Why? Because he just ran the party into the ground last time and put us into debt doing it.
You and I aren’t going to agree on Mr. Carey, certainly not at this point in time. The things you are asking for, in my opinon, have NEVER been done by the state or national party. Fealty to the platform is something we expect of candidates, but then we turn around and create a platform so complex that no one even knows what all is in it. We want candidates to be conservative, but tend to endorse the most electable. That makes sense, but without a challenger, candidates assume, and properly so, they can be endorsed “automatically” before the election and do what they want afterwards. There is no mechansm for “party discipline” by the party, and very little by the elected leadership. These are things that need correcting– to fix the system– before we get to the fine points of who leads the party. You’ve identified some of the symptoms of the problem. Any solutions other than replacing the Captain of the Titanic?
Carey, a bumbling idiot? I don’t think he is the bald overweight loser managing a trailer park…
The Governor’s office does not think you are worth being on their radar, that is probably why you do not know that the Governor did issue a press release on the speech last night.
The GOP is a vehicle for winning elections, candidates and elected officials offer visions and policy stances. Michael Barret was an idiot that did not even take a leave of absence from his job to run. You don’t run ads for people that CANNOT win. Kind of like when a Senate candidate is 20 points down in a poll and their campaign manager sends out an email that says if you believe the candidate is down by 20 points then he has some ocean-front property to offer. Hmmmm, 58-38, looks like 20 points to me…
Now go massage sporty spice, I mean Kennedy’s press secretary…
There is a problem with your formulation. Most people don’t give time, money, votes, or a flying fig for a candidate that doesn’t advance their principles or agenda. The State Party is supposed to be an organization of “like minded people” who come together to elect like-minded representatives. If the candidate chooses to ignore the party’s principles, they can still serve out their term, but what is needed is a process by which we can better prevent that in the first place, or at least make sure it doesn’t happen a second time. We don’t have that process today.
“Well, as long as we choose Governor Tim Pawlenty, that is. Sue Jeffers ran against Pawlenty in 2006, and made just about every rookie mistake one could make when running for office. But she was representing a growing portion of the Republican party that was upset with the direction of Republicans in office. I did not support her as I felt she got into the battle way too late.”
I resent that statement, Andy. We did a lot right, and ran what I feel was an exemplary campaign based on issues and honesty. I wish more candidates would be as candid as Sue was. No dirty tricks, no mud-slinging. Though, the MN GOP pulled out all the stops on the dirty-tricks express to try and shut Sue up. Why? She’s the real deal, and they were afraid that the delegates would like her a little too much. Running as GOP candidate while being completely, illegally and immoraly shut out of the process BY the GOP is quite a challenge, and I think Sue rose to that challenge admirably.
Did we make some mistakes? Sure, but every possible one? Not by a long shot. We got double digits in the primary with the game stacked tremendously against us, and people are still talking about Sue Jeffers. We did something right!
While I resent this particular statement, I DO agree with you about Ron Carey. I believe he is the source of many woes in the Minnesota Republican Party, and intend to join you in ousting him.
Dan McGrath
(formerly Sue’s campaign manager)
Dan – you have to admit you made a couple of colossal mistakes. The Independence Party thing killed you with a lot of delegates. The again, a lot of the “mistakes” that were made on behalf of the candidate, were made by well meaning supporters who let their passion get the better of them.
I do hope and pray that Sue stays with it because I loved a lot of what she said. I think she would be a great candidate next time out.
LL
I think you are confusing Libertarians with the Independence Party. Don’t Worry. Soucheray suffered the same confusion (on air!). I didn’t take over as Sue’s Campaign Manager until like May. Prior, I was involved as a copywriter/editor for her media committee. Dan Coleman was her manager before then, and I was advocating and orchestrating a move for the GOP nomination all along. Also, I did admit that we made some mistakes. And, we’ve learned from them. Andy, however seems to think we made every possible mistake, which is what I take exception to. Don’t worry. Sue isn’t going away, but don’t expect smooth sailing with MNGOP leadership. Sue is a theat to the status quo, which will mean continuing rocky roads with the current MNGOP leadership, I believe.