Governor

Unlike Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent in Minnesota’s last great recount did not appeal to the state Supreme Court. Gov. Elmer L. Andersen faced, as Coleman has, a ruling by a specially empaneled court that his Democratic rival (Karl Rolvaag) had won more votes. But Andersen decided not to continue the legal battle. His full statement of [...]

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s job-approval rating is on such a steep decline — dropping 10 percentage points in three months — that it’s on track to dip even lower than the pluralities by which he was elected.

Senate Republicans already quietly signaled acceptance that Al Franken will take former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s old seat by agreeing to a tentative committee-assignment plan that factors in the Minnesota Democrat. Now comes news that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) may reconsider her plan to resign for a 2010 gubernatorial run. The reason, according to [...]

Sen. John Marty announced on Monday that he is organizing an exploratory campaign for governor. The 22-year senator of the suburbs north of St. Paul ran unsuccessfully against Gov. Arne Carlson in 1994 losing by a large margin.
“After receiving strong encouragement from health care reformers and others, Senator John Marty is launching an exploratory campaign [...]

Over the weekend, Rep. Tim Walz told reporters that he is not running for governor and — despite much rumor to the contrary — he never was. Walz told Minnpost’s Erik Black on Sunday, “I’m in the right position to help the people in my district in this critical time,” Walz said.
On rumors of a [...]

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.

Although the new president hasn’t even been sworn in yet, political junkies are looking ahead to 2012. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told Associated Press reporters on Wednesday that he won’t be on presidential ballots in four years. Jindal is being watched as one of the top Republican contenders together with Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and, [...]

The twin stacks of recounted ballots for Al Franken and Norm Coleman, each nearing a million votes in height Tuesday night, are like the mattresses piled high in the fable “The Princess and the Pea.” Franken has 976,187 to Coleman’s 978,751 — only a 0.0011 percent difference out of the total 2,354,080 recounted so far, according to official figures. In Hans Christian Andersen’s story, the princess’s sleeplessness at night and bruises by morning — all from a tiny pea many mattresses below her — are proof of her royalty. In Minnesota’s recount story, neither man rests well, tossing and turning because at the bottom of each pile lies a growing bundle of the other man’s challenged ballots.

We’re supposed to learn Tuesday whether a final batch of 24,000 absentee and contested ballots will bring U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, back from a 1,000-vote deficit to win re-election, despite his recent felony conviction. Should Stevens win election but then get booted from the Senate, Gov. Sarah Palin will be in a situation very roughly akin to Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson’s in 1976 after former U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale was elected vice president. Anderson quit as governor, having arranged for his replacement, Rudy Perpich, to appoint him in Mondale’s place. Voters punished both Anderson and Perpich two years later, denying them re-election. If Stevens is the winner after the last Alaska vote is counted tomorrow, what advice would Anderson have for Palin?

Already by Tuesday, two men had tiptoed onto Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak’s turf this week. The city’s revitalization chief, Bob Miller, says he’ll run for the mayor’s job next year, the Southwest Journal reports. And on Monday Gov. Tim Pawlenty made a move on the green-jobs territory that Rybak — joined by another guv-wanna-be, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman — has spent years staking out. Meanwhile, as Pawlenty gears up for a potential presidential bid in 2012, a different Minneapolis official threw his hat in the ring for governor: State Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL).