PSR: Pawlenty vs. Hatch: Round One? (MN 2006 Gov. race)

[goobergunch]

The past few weeks in St. Paul have seen rich pickings for Minnesota political junkies already eyeing the Gubernatorial elections in 2006 as Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) and pundit-favorite challenger Attorney General Mike Hatch (DFL) have dropped the gloves and started a very public sparring match.

After a recent headline article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune suggested the Pawlenty Administration was seeking to possibly release convicted sex offenders to save money for the anticipated 2004-5 budget crunch, Attorney General Hatch quickly called a press conference to admonish Pawlenty and his staff and to suggest, as all of Minnesota's liberal establishment has, that Pawlenty's no-new-taxes stance was to blame. An irate Charlie Weaver, Pawlenty's Chief of Staff and Hatch's 1998 AG opponent, immediately called a press conference and blasted Hatch for his comments without having checked with the Governor's office, an intern's jog away, about the veracity of the story.

“Attorney General Hatch has become a political version of the ‘firefighter arsonist’ - he starts fires to get credit for putting them out. He is once again using deceptive and misleading tactics to scare people and convince them a crisis exists when there isn't one. Just last week, the non-partisan Legislative Auditor said the Attorney General's actions in another matter were ‘deceptive,’ ‘inappropriate,’ and ‘disturbing.’ Minnesotans deserve better conduct from our top legal official.”

This isn't the first time Hatch has been accused of political grandstanding--a label he was stuck with years before his political comeback as Attorney General in 1998. Twice a candidate for Governor, including 1990 when he ran against then incumbent DFL Governor Rudy Perpich, Hatch has been considered Pawlenty's chief future adversary as the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's lone Constitutional officer.

more...http://www.polstate.com/archives/003365.html#003365

[ButterflyBlood]

1. I heard the former state auditor was running too

she was a Republican but then switched just before leaving office I believe.

I just want that fuck OUT. At the way things are going though, beating him should be a piece of cake.

[election_2004]

2. a professor at my college said...

Judy Dutcher would most likely be the nominee in '06.