Photo: wdcpix

Photo: wdcpix

The announcements by Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty came 3,100 miles and 31 days apart. But observers in Alaska and Minnesota see close ties between the two Republican governors’ stated intentions to leave office.

“Palin’s decision, I think, was forced, in part, by Pawlenty’s decision not to run for governor again,” said David Schultz, a professor of law at Hamline University in St. Paul.

Palin set heads spinning and tongues wagging with her surprise announcement on Friday that she not only won’t seek re-election to the Alaska governorship next year but that she’ll step down later this month. In Minnesota, Pawlenty made a smaller splash with his own June 2 announcement that he won’t run for a third term in 2010 — but will complete his current term.

Palin’s announcement came amid ethical complaints and publicity troubles, factors she cited in her remarks. Pawlenty’s came amid tensions over his refusal to enact taxes to balance an ailing state budget, opting instead to unilaterally “unallot” spending programs.

Both moves were widely seen as indications of interest in the 2012 Republication nomination for president. (Pawlenty was first runner-up when U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona picked Palin as running-mate on his 2008 presidential ticket.)

“Touring the country for name recognition and, more importantly, the need to raise a ton of money pushed Pawlenty to make his decision,” Schultz said in an email to the Minnesota Independent on Monday. “Palin, in far-off Alaska, also needs to raise money and tour — and doing that as governor in distant Alaska [is] hard. Both of their decisions are proof that running for president is a full-time, multi-year job.”

In Palin’s view, Schultz reckons, “being governor is no longer good or necessary for her presidential race. She obviously does not believe that experience or any more knowledge about government and politics will help her be a better candidate.”

But putting that calculus into practice comes at a cost, said David Noon, a University of Alaska history professor and Palin critic. “I assume no one is seriously regarding Pawlenty as a quitter, which is, I think, the only appropriate term to describe Palin at this point.”

Pawlenty’s announcement was understated and stately where Palin’s was overwrought and shaky. “Palin bolting in the weird way she did would actually be decent news for Pawlenty’s presidential hopes,” Noon said.

Those hopes could use a boost — and money. Pawlenty’s actual popularity still lags behind a high profile in Republican circles, built on more than a year of keynoting GOP events around the country and having his name bandied about for vice president.

In Noon’s view from Alaska, Pawlenty continues to be about “as uninteresting a candidate as McCain’s people seemed to think he’d be in the VP candidate’s role.”

But if he lacks her luster, he also has avoided the downside of the limelight. In what Noon describes as an Alaskan atmosphere in which “there’s all sorts of nutty rumors circulating,” the official word is that Palin was motivated to quit by the expense of fighting off ethics inquiries — as much as $500,000.

That’s a problem Pawlenty doesn’t have. Indeed, threatened lawsuits over his unallotments appear to have fizzled.