Molnau has nothing to do with what Republican Peter Kinder is up to, of course. Except that as Midwest Regional Chair of the Lieutenant Governors Association, she is supposed to promote the effectiveness of Kinder and lieutenant governors in 11 other states, including her own.

Photo: MNDOT

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 then — oh, just read the press release yourself …

From the office of Gov. Pawlenty:

Governor Pawlenty and Lieutenant Governor Molnau’s Public Events Schedule for Thursday, September 3

Thursday, September 3

9:30 a.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau announces an initiative from the National Lieutenant Governors Association, “Your Heart is in Your Hands.”
Education Center
Health Booth
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

11:00 a.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau speaks at the award ceremony for Minnesota’s “2009 Outstanding Senior Citizens of the Year.”
Leinie’s Lodge Bandshell
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

12:30 p.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau participates in a celebrity butter carving contest.
Moo Demonstration Area
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

2:00 p.m. – State Fairgrounds
Lieutenant Governor Molnau participates in the Birds of Prey show.
Department of Natural Resources Building
Main Stage
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

Update: Another day, another butter-carving competition.

Friday, September 4

4:30 p.m. – State Fairgrounds                     
Lieutenant Governor Molnau judges the Butter Carve-O-Rama public butter carving contest. 
Moo Demonstration Area
Minnesota State Fairgrounds

Molnau at 2008 NLGA conference. Photo: MN North Star

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.

From the official state press release:

“Lieutenant Governor Molnau was selected by a bi-partisan group of her peers from every region in the nation as a leader among her colleagues,” said NLGA Executive Director Julia Hurst.

“I am honored that my colleagues designated me to serve in NLGA leadership this year,” Lieutenant Governor Molnau said. “I look forward to working with them and share best practices that will benefit the constituents of Minnesota and other states.”

The state Senate stripped her of her commissionership following the I-35W bridge collapse, but Molnau envisions a political future for herself, even after Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s decision not to run for re-election.

She may run for governor or Congress in 2010 and in the meantime remains NLGA chair of all she surveys. Besides Minnesota, the Midwest region includes Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Including Molnau, five of the Midwest’s lieutenant governors are women, more than in any other region. Nationally, there are 12 women among the 55 lieutenant governors serving U.S. states and territories, with Molnau and Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman the only Republican women.

In the only two lieutenant-governor elections this year, in New Jersey and Virginia, both Democratic Party candidates are women (and both are Jewish). In fact, the tally of female lieutenant governors is guaranteed to increase because the Republican candidate in New Jersey is also a woman.

That’s unusual in most states but wouldn’t be so in Minnesota, where the last five gubernatorial elections have involved two or more women as major-party running mates, and the last five lieutenant governors have been female.

Marlene Johnson, elected on the Democratic ticket with Rudy Perpich in 1982 and 1986, was the first woman to hold the post. After Johnson came Joanell Dyrstad (Republican, elected with Arne Carlson in 1990); Joanne Benson (Republican, also elected with Carlson, in 1994); Mae Schunk (Reform Party, later Independence Party, elected with Jesse Ventura); and Molnau (elected with Tim Pawlenty in 2002 and 2004).

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

FARMFEST: Carol Molnau may be mulling guv run. But the first few days after the anniversary of the I-35W bridge collapse can’t be the best time for the lieutenant governor (and decommissioned transportation commissioner) to announce. [Star Tribune]

FARMFEST: Republicans quash gubernatorial straw poll. Chronic election observer Jimmy Carter wouldn’t approve, but party leaders didn’t want an unsanctioned survey to usurp their official straw poll in October. [Polinaut]

BEMIDJI: Congressman declares, “This is Recovery City.” Okay, U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, but then what’s Center City, home of Hazelden? [Bemidji Pioneer]

ST. CLOUD: Ex-mayor could become ex-lawyer. The Minnesota Supreme Court might suspend John Ellenbecker for losing a client’s audio cassettes, including a mix tape with that one Flock of Seagulls song. [St. Cloud Times]

DULUTH: Cops can’t take tix for golf tourney. The city attorney says accepting free passes as payment for off-duty security service at next week’s PGA Championship in Chaska isn’t kosher — though a plane-ticket gift for a city councilor to visit a Japanese sister-city was fine. [Duluth News-Tribune]

TWIN CITIES: Feds’ suit says drycleaner fired woman for getting pregnant. “Employers cannot restrict women — pregnant or otherwise — from their facilities in anything but the most unique of circumstances,” said an official. Most unique? Does that apply when women are only a little bit pregnant? [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

“We don’t have term limits in Minnesota, but we do have good judgment and common sense,” Pawlenty said. “Time marches on and now it’s time to give someone else a chance.”

The governor, however, refused to be drawn into speculation that the move is an indication that he harbors presidential ambitions. “I don’t have any plans beyond serving out my term,” Pawlenty insisted. “I’m not ruling anything in or out.”

In recent weeks, Pawlenty has drawn plaudits from conservative quarters for his hard-line stance on fixing the state’s budget problems without raising taxes. Americans for Tax Reform, arguably the country’s most stridently anti-tax advocacy group, named him a “Hero of the Taxpayer.” An op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal praised his budget maneuvers as a potential blueprint for how the national GOP could get its groove back.

At today’s press conference, Pawlenty brandished his fiscal conservative bona fides on several occasions. “The fact that we’ve brought more competition to Minnesota by keeping a lid on taxes and spending is really important,” he said when asked about his proudest achievements in office.

But Pawlenty continued to plead ignorance about any national political plans. When asked at the press conference if he intended to start a political-action committee, he professed uncertainty about the logistics of setting up such an organization.

The governor’s decision not to attempt a three-peat is also viewed by many political observers as bad news for Al Franken. The reason: It may suggest that Pawlenty will be emboldened to hold off signing an election certificate even if Franken prevails in the U.S. Senate contest at the Minnesota Supreme Court, as is widely anticipated. Such a maneuver would curry favor with the party’s base and the GOP leadership in the nation’s capital, but it would likely doom any statewide political ambitions in Minnesota.

Pawlenty’s remarks on this matter in the past have been ambiguous. Today he stated that he would adhere to the directives of the courts. “I think you guys have really over-baked that issue,” he said. “You’re really spinning out of control on that.”

In cold political terms, the decision not to run for re-election was probably not particularly difficult. Although polling released since the end of the legislative session has indicated that Pawlenty is still relatively popular, he would have faced an extremely difficult battle. He failed to garner 50 percent of the vote in his first two runs for the top office and Democrats have made significant electoral gains in the last two election cycles. In addition, it’s uncertain how Pawlenty’s budgetary hardball will play with Minnesota voters. Defeat at the ballot box in 2010 would surely doom any future national ambitions.

But the governor insisted that fear of losing played no part in his decision. “I absolutely could have won and I think would have won a third term,” he said.

Pawlenty’s decision not to seek re-election likely means there will be a crowded field of contenders for the GOP crown in next year’s gubernatorial contest. Among the names in the ether: former Pawlenty chief of staff Charlie Weaver, former House Speaker Steve Sviggum, House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, former State Auditor Patricia Anderson, state Sens. David Hann and Julie Rosen, state Reps. Paul Kohls and Laura Brod, former U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad and GOP National Committeeman Brian Sullivan.

One potential candidate unlikely to run: Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau.
“Someone once told me never say never,” Molnau said at the press conference, “but I think it’s probably highly unlikely that I would be looking at a governorship.”

Perhaps the closest Pawlenty came to admitting national political ambitions during the press conference was when he talked about helping to rebuild the Republican Party after significant electoral setbacks during the last four years. “It’s got to be a party that can accommodate both Colin Powell and Rush Limbaugh if we’re going to be successful,” he said, taking a not-so-subtle swipe at former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Pawlenty also showcased the aw-shucks political skills that have made him a player in national politics. Near the close of the press conference, he insisted that his ideal job has nothing to do with politics.

“My dream job is to be an NHL defenseman, but at 48 and having no skill it’s tough,” he laughed.

DFL blogger Dusty Trice began digging into Pawlenty’s term-limit past last week with a succession of posts that revealed increasingly ironic nuggets of legislative history. After the term-limits bill Pawlenty and Molnau co-authored in 1993 wasn’t successful, T-Paw authored a new bill two years later, pushing the idea to the point of making the term limits retroactive.

The conservative NationalReview.com blogs that 1995 was a long time ago: “A lot can change in 14 years, including a guy’s mind.”

But for the Tim Pawlenty and Carol Molnau of today — who stuck together even as the I-35W bridge collapse cost Molnau her moonlighting gig as commissioner of transportation — their long-buried legislative waste could prove radioactive.

Pawlenty had intended a 2002 run for U.S. Senate (where limiting terms is far beyond the reach of any state legislator). But heavy hands in the White House prodded Pawlenty into the governor’s race so that St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, a Republican convert, could challenge the sitting two-term Democratic senator who had once pledged to quit after 12 years.

If Paul Wellstone were still with us, Pawlenty could ask him how tough it is to run against your own words on limited terms in office.

The accolades began with committee Chairman Steve Murphy. “I think the governor made the best possible choice that he could make,” gushed the Red Wing DFLer. “I believe you’re one of the best commissioners that he’s ever appointed.”

The top Republican on the committee, Michael Jungbauer, praised Sorel for his communication skills. “What I’ve really seen since you’ve been here is that coming together as a team,” said the East Bethel Republican. “I’m really excited to have you on board.”

This was a far cry from the scene at the Capitol just under a year ago when Democrats ousted Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau as the state’s top transportation official. Molnau had been under fierce criticism since the Aug. 1, 2007, collapse of the 35-W Bridge and was kicked to the curb by a 44-22 party-line vote.

Sorel didn’t receive praise from everyone on the committee, however. “I’ve been on this committee 18 years, I believe,” said Sen. Dick Day, a Republican from Owatonna. “I’ve never met the commissioner. So I don’t think his communication [skills] are all that great — in dealing with me anyway.”

Despite this sour note, the committee voted unanimously (Day included) to back Sorel’s confirmation.

Clockwise from upper left: Quinn, Blagojevich, Andersen, Rolvaag (MHS)

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). Despite making overtures and even having once defended his embattled boss’s integrity, Quinn says he hasn’t spoken to Blagojevich since Aug. 2, 2007.

That’s a contrast with Minnesota, where Gov. Tim Pawlenty stood by Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau and pleaded her case until the state Senate canned her from her moonlighting stint as state transportation commissioner in the wake of the I-35W bridge collapse — which by coincidence occurred the day before Quinn’s last talk with Blagojevich.

So things are different in Illinois and Minnesota, at least in that respect. 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.

The rivals in the race for governor that year were the sitting governor, Republican Elmer L. Andersen, and the sitting lieutenant governor, DFLer Karl Rolvaag. (Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor in those days did not run together on a ticket, so the office-holders weren’t necessarily of the same party.) After each won election to two-year terms in 1960, their 1962 clash was inevitable, according to the 1964 book “Recount” by Ronald F. Stinnett and Charles H. Backstrom.

Rolvaag, who had already served three terms as lieutenant governor, and Andersen, a 10-year state Senate veteran, “had personalities and philosophies so different that they could only resolve into opposition for the governorship in 1962,” Stinnett and Backstrom wrote, adding:

Karl Rolvaag stated several times just prior to his ascension from the “broom closet” to the plush parlors of the Governor’s suite that he had been in the Governor’s office only twice during Andersen’s term.

(The “broom closet” was a small office to which Rolvaag decamped toward the end of the 139-day recount, to make way for A.M. “Sandy” Keith, a fellow DFLer whose separate election in 1962 to the office of lieutenant governor was undisputed.)

By the end of the recount, which gave Rolvaag a 91-vote victory over Andersen, the two men exhibited a civility toward one another not seen between Blagojevich and Quinn — or between current recount rivals Al Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman for that matter. Still, during the two years they spent working — in theory — together, the relationship was an arm’s-length one on par with the current occupants of Illinois’ Statehouse.

Andersen left Rolvaag alone to do the one duty of a lieutenant governor: oversee the state Senate, which then met only 90 days per year. He might have more profitably given Rolvaag something else to do, even running the state transportation department. Instead Rolvaag enjoyed plenty of spare time in which to plot his campaign to topple Andersen.

The Rolvaag-Andersen contest is one such rivalry that NPR’s Political Junkie blog cites in a useful overview of the governor-lieutenant governor relationship in America, inspired by Quinn’s comments Thursday. Today in 18 states, voters elect candidates to those offices separately. Among the other states, Illinois is one of seven in which candidates are nominated individually (running separately in party primaries in Illinois), only to unite on a single ticket for the general election.

That allows plenty of opportunity for potentially distant shotgun marriages around the country, though few reach the caustic depths of one calling for the other’s ouster as in Illinois today – or the razor’s-edge rivalry of Minnesota in 1962.

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.

A 527 group, True Blue Minnesota has long planned to park a pair of mobile digital billboards just off the intersection of John Ireland Boulevard and Kellogg, within eye-shot of next week’s Republican National Convention. The group obtained a permit from the city, the land’s owner, back in April. But on Wednesday, the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board (CAAP), which also has jurisdiction over the space, held a vote over the project, tying 5 to 5, along party lines. Molnau cast the deciding no-vote, citing traffic-safety concerns.

Martha Ballou, president of True Blue Minnesota, says such concerns are “phony,” citing the low speed limits at the intersection, the low impact of the project, and the fact that the signs will be placed a fair distance from the road. “The capitol area is the front lawn for politics in Minnesota, and everyone goes there with a variance,” she told me. “Taste of Minnesota has operated there. They granted a variance to The Daily Show. The only one they haven’t granted one to is us.”

It’s interesting, she adds, that only the CAAP’s Republican members raised safety concerns. “They’re kneecapping political opposition during the Republican convention and using government means to do so.”

Some heavy-hitters are contributing to the Jumbotrons’ video content: Phil Donahue contributed “Body of War.” John Cusick offered up “War, Inc.” And “Outfoxed” filmmaker Robert Greenwald is making available his entire film library. Ballou suspects this content, as well as videos submitted by citizens, is what prompted Molnau’s vote.

“Everybody wants [the RNC] to go well. And the way this can go well is to allow everyone to have their say,” Ballou says. “How much more peaceful can you be then a huge outdoor television? But we do have pictures of people at Abu Ghraib. We will put the GOP record up. That’s what they’re trying to stop. This is a critical constitutional issue for everyone in Minnesota.”

At 3 p.m. this afternoon, Ballou will appear in Ramsey County court seeking a temporary restraining order against Molnau and the CAAP board so the project can go on as planned.

Related: Amid ‘paranoia’ CBS Outdoor pulls ‘Soldiers’ billboards

The answer is quite simple: under the Minnesota Constitution Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau would serve out the final two years of Pawlenty’s term. While this move would undoubtedly improve the cow-milking capabilities of the state’s top officeholder, based on Molnau’s ill-fated tenure as transportation commissioner it wouldn’t bode particularly well for the residents of Minnesota.

But if Molnau were to move up, who then would advance to within a keg-throwing accident of the governor’s mansion? Senate President James Metzen. “I really haven’t given it much thought,” laughs Metzen, a seven-term DFL senator from South St. Paul. “I think it’s a longshot. If succession did happen I’d have to figure out what the lieutenant governor does. Maybe I’d get a few more days to go fishing in the summer.”