Pawlenty Himself Admits Gubernatorial Bid Will Be “An Uphill Climb”

The Revelation Comes After Coleman Tells Tim, ‘Don’t Look Back’

Today, Governor Tim Pawlenty took the advice of his primary opponent, Jeff Johnson, and went back to Minnesota to acquaint himself with the state. While making the rounds at the state capital, he said out loud what everyone already knew, that “the race would be an uphill climb.”
It was a moment of clarity from Gov. Pawlenty, but also illustrated he doesn’t really understand his record in Minnesota. Whether it was on health care, the budget, or jobs, Tim Pawlenty left Minnesota worse off than when he took office, and let Minnesotans clean up the mess.
That’s why we released a video last week, titled “Tim’s Mess,” highlighting the mess Tim Pawlenty made of Minnesota during his tenure as governor.
Now, we don’t expect him to listen to us necessarily. However, maybe he’ll listen to former GOP Senator Norm Coleman, who told voters they might like what they see if they look too hard.

“In the end, I think it would be a mistake to go back and [say], ‘Well, here’s where the state was, here’s where it is now,’ like somehow Pawlenty is tied to the past. You’re not going to see that,” Coleman said. “It’s going to be, I’ve got to believe, ‘Here’s the vision for the future.’ … I don’t think Tim’s going to be looking back very much.”

“Tim Pawlenty is absolutely correct that winning the governor’s race this year will be ‘an uphill climb,’”said Deputy Communications Director David Turner. “His record makes winning an incredibly difficult task. Governor Pawlenty made a mess, moved to D.C. to make millions shilling for Wall Street, and left Minnesotans to clean up his mess. Why would Minnesotans want to go through that again when they just cleaned up Tim’s mess?”