pawlenty-careeningGov. Tim Pawlenty will address members of the Republican National Committee July 30 in San Diego. It’s a chance to introduce himself to party leaders, Politico reports, quoting an unnamed adviser’s view that “a lot of Republicans don’t know who he is.”

Pawlenty is expected to offer ideas for expanding the party’s base and tell his life story, from growing up in South St. Paul with a truck-driving dad, to maintaining his own hard-driving no-tax stance as governor at a State Capitol now dominated by Democrats.

Pawlenty just returned from Iraq and is already set to speak at a gathering of Republican governors next month. A travel schedule that started getting heavy when he was in the running as a vice presidential pick last summer never really let up and seems to be accelerating again since his announcement that he won’t seek a third term.

That led to widespread speculation that he’ll make a bid for his party’s presidential nomination in 2012.

“I think he’s clearly doing the things he ought to do to put himself in position if that’s what he wants to do,” says lobbyist and former U.S. Rep. Vin Weber.