Carol Molnau

UPDATED Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau. Minnesota State Fair. Celebrity butter carving contest. What more do you need to know?
Well, there is more to know, believe it or not, about Molnau’s activities with the National Lieutenant Governors Association. She starts her Thursday at the fair announcing an NLGA initiative called “Your Heart Is in Your Hands.” And [...]

Carol Molnau, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and former transportation commissioner, has been re-elected chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association’s (NLGA) Midwest Region.

In a Farmfest speech that was as much national as state-focused, Gov. Pawlenty urged ailing dairy farmers to increase demand by selling to China and India and promised to create a Minnesota Farmer Assistance Network (MFAN) for one-stop advice. State Rep. Al Juhnke, a DFLer from Willmar, said the guv’s “words ring true but his actions [...]

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s decision not to seek a third term is widely viewed as an indication that he plans to seriously test the waters for a presidential bid in 2012. But at a press conference this afternoon he insisted that he has no future political plans.

The Republican ticket of Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau has twice emerged from three-way races victorious by plurality. Now Pawlenty is thinking about seeking a third term in 2010. If he goes for it, he’ll have a past failure to thank for the opportunity: In the 1990s, he and Molnau sought to enshrine term limits on governors and lieutenant governors in the Minnesota Constitution.

Everybody loves Tom Sorel. That was the message at this afternoon’s gathering of the Senate Transportation Committee. Sorel has been serving as the state’s Commissioner of Transportation since April, but today he faced a confirmation hearing at the Capitol.

Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is calling for the resignation of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a man with whom he shared a ticket but apparently little else except antipathy. According to Quinn, the two men haven’t spoken since Aug. 2, 2007. That was the day after the I-35W bridge fell in Minneapolis, an event that did not trigger estrangement between Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, who was then also Transportation Commissioner. But the distant relationship between Blagojevich and his second-in-command does have at least one parallel in Minnesota, from the time of the last great statewide election recount in 1962.

Up until Wednesday, Republican National Convention delegates could expect to see video of Guantanamo detainees, scenes from the Iraq war, and movies like “Body of War” broadcast on huge Jumbotron trucks from the capitol front lawn. But thanks to Minnesota’s second-highest constitutional officer, Republican Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau, the project’s permit was denied.

That’s not the end of it, though: The digital billboard’s sponsor, True Blue Minnesota, is heading to court this afternoon in hopes of winning back the right to present the videos.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is clearly among the frontrunners for the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket. Every beltway wonk has him on their short list and Marc Ambinder recently reported on a T-Paw fundraiser hosted at the Georgetown townhouse of former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman that had the whiff of a VP [...]

Gov. Pawlenty has basked in wide praise over the last 24 hours because his pick to lead MnDOT, Tom Sorel, is an actual transportation expert — not a political hack like former commissioner Carol Molnau or a PR flack like interim MnDOT head Bob McFarlin. But Sorel (pictured above with former commissioner Carol Molnau on [...]