July 29, 2009
2-4pm
The Links at Dred Scott
10820 Bloomington Ferry Rd
Bloomington, MN
http://linksminigolf.com/

$500 – hole sponsorship includes mini golf for threesome and Senator (first come, first serve), and sponsorship sign
$100 – per person includes mini golf, and will be assigned to a foursome which may include a Senator

Schedule of Events
1:30pm – Check-in
2:00pm – Shot Gun Start
4:00pm – Happy Hour at Zeke’s
7700 W Old Shakopee Rd

Hole Sponsors must RSVP no later than Monday, July 20
Players must RSVP no later than Friday, July 24
Register by email: rsvp@senatevictoryfund.com
Register by phone: 651.487.0088

Schedule of Events:
Registration: 11:00 am -  Noon
Lunch: 11:00 am - Noon
Shotgun Start: 12:15 pm
Social Hour: 5:00 pm (as golfers arrive)
Buffet Dinner & Program: 6:00 pm

How to Participate:
Tournament Sponsor: $5,000 (Special recognition on tournament signage and program, a foursome with first choice of Member, and all meals)
Hole Sponsor: $3,000 (Recognition on hole signage and program, a foursome with a Member, and all meals)
Contest Sponsor: $1,500 (Recognition on contest hole signage and program, two golfers and all meals)
Player: $500 (Includes golf and all meals)
Lunch Only $100:  Dinner Only $200

RSVP by Friday, September 11
Register and contribute online
Register by email: rsvp@senatevictoryfund.com
Register by phone: 651.487.0088

Here’s a sample of the outrage:

“To every Minnesotan who will feel the impact of these cuts, I have this to say: It didn’t have to be this way,” said House Majority Leader Tony Sertich.

He’s right - his party could have done the hard task of making the cuts or finding a budget agreement. His party and its leadership lacked the fortitude and vision to find a budget that worked.

“When the governor said his $100 million unallotment to higher education will only cut 3.6 percent from the University and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, he didn’t include the $40 million he cut with his prior unallotments and the $60 million cut he signed into law this session,” said Rep. Tom Rukavina. “Some people call that dishonest. I call it lying through your teeth.”

But Rukavina doesn’t seem to understand that Pawlenty has been saying he’d cut higher education all along with the rest of the unallotments made public Tuesday.

If Pawlenty is lying, then Rukavina and his party have been traitors of Minnesotans’ trust as they flatly failed to find a balanced budget.

The Democrats believe that if there’s enough smoke, people will believe there’s also fire. But all the bluster and outrage coming from somewhere near St. Paul is posturing and pandering of the worst kind because it’s nothing more than partisan politics.

Like it or not, Pawlenty was true to his word. He cut what he said he would. Those who would believe otherwise simply didn’t listen or shouldn’t be leading this state through these very turbulent times. (House and Senate leadership, we’re looking in your direction.)

It’s fine to be outraged at cutting funding to our children, to the elderly, to those in college who are our future, to those who cannot help themselves. We are also upset.

But don’t forget the DFL gave Pawlenty the power to unallot.

So if you’re thinking about directing rage at someone - pause for a moment when you think about aiming criticism at Pawlenty.

Pawlenty remained true to his word - whatever that is worth.

And speaking of worth, the only thing worth less than talk was the inaction of the

DFL-controlled Legislature that did everything but pass a budget.

Keep in mind their failure didn’t stop most members from successfully collecting a paycheck or per diems, despite record state revenue shortfalls.

There’s a word for taking money and not doing a job, isn’t there?

By Darrell Ehrlick, editor, on behalf of the Winona Daily News editorial board, which also includes publisher Rusty Cunningham and deputy editor Jerome Christenson. To comment, call (507) 453-3507 or send e-mail to letters@winonadailynews.com.

along with co-hosts:
Carrie and Bill Adamson
Joy and Michael Fogarty
Monica and Geoffrey Griffin
Judy and Leigh J. Johnson
Marlys and David Senjem
Peg and John Wade
Dawn and Jon Eckhoff
Una and Dr. Colum Gorman
Valerie and Ron Jerich
Joe Powers
Marilyn and Jack Stewart
Darlene and Joe Weis

To celebrate the life and legacy of Nancy Brataas in support of the Senate Victory Fund

Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Kahler Grand Hotel (Heritage Hall)
20 SW SEcond Avenue, Rochester, MN
5:00 pm Cocktail Reception 6:00 pm Dinner & Program
$100 per person

RSVP by Friday, June 19
Register and contribute online
Register by email: rsvp@senatevictoryfund.com
Register by phone: 651.487.0088

Program Participants
U.S. Senator Norm Coleman
Governor Al Quie
Senate Minority Leader David Senjem
Former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe
Former Senate Minority Leader Duane Benson
Former Mayor of Rochester Chuck Hazama
John Wade (emcee) and Jane Belau & Tom Overlie (music)

Thursday, June 18, 2009
Southview Country Club
239 East Mendota Road
West Saint Paul, MN

Roundtable 4-5pm with special guest Governer Pawlenty
Contribution $500 per person

Reception 5-7pm
Contribution $250 per person

RSVP by Monday, June 15
Register and contribute online
Register by email: rsvp@senatevictoryfund.com
Register by phone: 651.487.0088

ST. PAUL (AP) ― Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty erased one doubt about his political future while blowing open another, passing Tuesday on a third-term bid while declining to say if he’ll set his sights on the White House.

Pawlenty dismissed talk of a 2012 Republican presidential campaign as premature, noting that he has 19 months before leaving his current job. But he said he wouldn’t hesitate to travel the country on behalf of a party he thinks needs refreshing. He’ll be in Washington on Friday to address the College Republicans.

“I’m going to try to lend voice to the need to raise issues and ideas for my party here and elsewhere if I’m asked,” Pawlenty said, “because I think we need new ideas and faces in the party. That’s a collateral activity — something I will do as a volunteer.”

Pawlenty has spoken in the past of the GOP’s need to remake itself to attract “Sam’s Club Republicans.”

While Minnesota doesn’t have term limits, Pawlenty said he’d impose them on himself. “Time marches on, and now it’s time to give someone else a chance.”

At a news conference flanked by his wife, two daughters and the lieutenant governor, Pawlenty shot down suggestions that he was nervous about losing another campaign or facing fallout from deep budget cuts he’ll soon make.

He repeatedly brushed aside questions about life beyond the governor’s mansion, saying his focus was on “finishing this term out strong.” Beyond that, he said, he had no plans.

A conservative with blue-collar roots, Pawlenty, 48, has been considered a likely White House candidate for months and people close to him say they expect him to seek the Republican presidential nomination. Pawlenty has left open the possibility of a White House bid; people close to him say he had been trying to decide between running for a third term or seeking the presidency.

Pawlenty is a key player in the prolonged dispute over the state’s U.S. Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. The governor hasn’t issued an election certificate because Coleman, whose term expired in January, is still contesting the results that tipped the race to Franken by a few hundred votes. Pawlenty said he’ll follow the state Supreme Court’s direction on the certificate and won’t “hold it up or delay it in any fashion.”

Despite his two victories, Pawlenty never exceeded 46 percent of the vote. Third-party candidates factored into both elections.

Still, Pawlenty’s success as a right-leaning Republican elected twice in left-leaning Minnesota marked him in national GOP circles as a young politician to watch. He gave his political profile a boost in 2008 when he endorsed John McCain early on, then campaigned for the nominee around the country and in many national media interviews.

That work earned him a spot last summer among the top prospects to be McCain’s running mate. Pawlenty was seen as one of two or three finalists right until the moment McCain upended the campaign by choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

If he seeks the presidency, Pawlenty could face a GOP field crowded with former and current governors. Among the potential candidates are Palin, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

If running for president is his goal, there are numerous advantages to vacating the governor’s mansion.

By not being tethered to St. Paul, Pawlenty will be free to travel to political events and, more important, to key nominating states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.

The decision will also spare him a costly and potentially difficult reelection bid in 2010, where a loss could derail his ambitions before the nomination process even heated up.

“The Republicans are looking for leaders and his experience as governor gives him an entree,” said Merle Black, a professor of politics at Emory University in Atlanta. “One of the things that he would be trying to do is increase his name recogition and visibility throughout the country because outside of Minnesota he isn’t known at all.”

Black compared Pawlenty to another governor who sought the presidency — former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. When Carter left the statehouse in 1974 he was unheralded but spent the ensuing two years building a political network — including long months campaigning in Iowa.

Pawlenty began calling political allies early Tuesday to disclose his plans. One person who talked to the governor said he cited personal and political considerations, including his battles with a Democratic-controlled legislature. Pawlenty also has two daughters ages 16 and 12, and declining to run for another term would free him to seek more lucrative work than the $120,000-a-year governor’s salary.

Pawlenty has taken a conservative’s stance on taxes, most recently holding firm against attempts by legislative Democrats to increase some taxes to fill in a massive state budget deficit. Failing to reach a compromise with Democrats, Pawlenty instead invoked executive powers that allow him to trim state spending without legislative consent.

Pawlenty strayed from his tax orthodoxy just once, when in 2005 he proposed and helped pass a 75-cent-a-pack “health impact fee” on cigarettes that critics said was just a creatively named tax.

The governor has followed traditionally conservative stances on most social issues, favoring freer access to guns and opposing abortion and legal partnership rights for gay couples. But he’s broken from party orthodoxy on a few issues, speaking out in favor of importing prescription drugs from Canada and promoting pro-environmental business initiatives.

The lawyer and native of South St. Paul started in politics on the local level, serving on the Eagan City Council before his election to the state House where he went on to serve as majority leader. Pawlenty was little-known statewide when he first ran for governor in 2002, but managed to win against a veteran Democratic legislator and a prominent former congressman running for a third party. That successful run came after Pawlenty dropped plans for a Senate bid at the request of then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

Pawlenty claimed a long list of accomplishments at his news conference, saying he “kept Minnesota competitive” by putting a lid on taxes and spending.

But Minnesota Democrats called his decision “an opportunity to move Minnesota forward.”

“Governor Pawlenty’s ‘no new taxes’ ideology plays well to Republican special interests and the dinner circuits from Iowa to New Hampshire, but it has hurt Minnesota and Minnesotans,” Chairman Brian Melendez said in a statement. “The divisive politics of ideology and calculation have done enough damage.”

As reported by Pat Kessler, Star Tribune, June 2, 2009.