“I still think it’s a little early,” she says. “I haven’t really given it too much serious thought. I’m concentrating on just completing my job in the Senate.”

But she certainly sounds like a politician with ambitions beyond her current post. Rosen touts her background as an agronomist, her work on the health-care issues at the Capitol and the fact that she’s a woman as political assets.

“I would be a very formidable candidate against Walz,” she says. “If I decided to run I’d work like a banshee.”

She argues that the two-term Democrat is out of touch with the First Congressional District on issues such as health care reform and cap-and-trade legislation. Despite the fact that Walz won re-election by 30 points in 2008, she believes he’s vulnerable.

“I don’t think I would be even entertaining the thought if I thought he was serving us correctly in all areas,” she says.

So does that mean Rosen’s leaning toward the First District instead of a run at the state’s top elected office? Not necessarily.

“I don’t have a preference one over the other,” she says.

The gubernatorial field already includes nine GOP challengers. And at least two other Republicans — Allen Quist and Jim Hagedorn — are already eyeing a Walz challenge. But Rosen insists that she doesn’t feel any pressure to settle on her plans (if any) for 2010.

“I think the decision will come in the proper time,” she says. “It will all work out if it’s supposed to.”

Rep. Tim Walz and Allen Quist

Allen Quist has been largely out of the political spotlight for roughly a decade. But according to a recent report on Bluestem Prairie, the conservative Republican is mulling a run at U.S. Rep. Tim Walz in the First Congressional District.

Reached at his home in St. Peter, Quist certainly didn’t shoot down the possibility. “I’m not ready to comment on that,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “If I’m in a position to comment, it won’t be very long. That’s a big if.”

Quist served three terms in the state House and was the GOP-endorsed candidate for governor in 1994, but was handily beaten by Arne Carlson in the primary election. A darling of cultural conservatives, Quist sought the Republican endorsement again in 1998, but dropped out before the state convention in favor of Norm Coleman. Since then he’s worked with EdWatch, a conservative advocacy group that has championed home schooling and criticized public school curricula, and taught at Bethany Lutheran College.

Walz is currently serving his second term, winning re-election last year by 30 percentage points. The contest doesn’t make the cut for most lists of potentially competitive House races for 2010. Historically, the southern Minnesota district has leaned Republican, and the Cook Partisan Voting Index rates it +1 for the GOP, but Democrats have enjoyed considerable electoral success in recent years. Walz initially won the seat by knocking off six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht.

There are no announced challengers for Walz yet. Another name that’s generated a lot of discussion: state Sen. Julie Rosen.

Steve Perkins, chairman of the GOP in the first district, says that others are eyeing the race as well, but he declines to name potential challengers. “Clearly there’s a lot of interest in it,” he says. “We’re certainly going to have a number of very strong, electable candidates. Allen may be one of those candidates.”

Perkins argues that Walz is out of step with the district on a number of issues, including his support for cap-and-trade legislation, the federal stimulus package and health-care reform. He doesn’t believe that the Democratic incumbent’s landslide victory in 2008 means that he’s not vulnerable.

“Why don’t you call on Gil Gutknecht and ask about winning by wide margins?” he laughs. “The horizon in 2010 is going to be infinitely different than what it was in 2008.”

Update: Quist officially announces his candidacy (11/20/09)

“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.

Running for re-election in 2010 would be a risky proposition for Pawlenty. He’s twice won office with less than 50 percent of the vote, and in 2008 he benefited from the implosion of Democrat Mike Hatch’s campaign in the final week before election day.

Furthermore, it’s unknown what kind of political blowback Pawlenty will receive once the dust has settled on the state’s ongoing budget problems. Early polling by SurveyUSA suggested that the Republican governor came out of the session with reasonably good prospects for re-election. But that’s before he unilaterally cuts roughly $1 billion from the budget. Losing a re-election bid would almost certainly derail Pawlenty’s national political ambitions.

Speculation will now turn to who will fill the gubernatorial void for the GOP. It’s likely to be a crowded field. Some names expected to be in the mix: former U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad, former Pawlenty chief of staff Charlie Weaver, House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, former House Speaker Steve Sviggum, state Rep. Laura Brod and state Sen. Julie Rosen.

Pawlenty’s decision will also undoubtedly ramp up speculation that he’s going to run for president in 2012.

It was an impressive speaker list: State Sen. Julie Rosen, DFL-Fairmont; Ramsey County Attorney and presumptive gubernatorial candidate Susan Gaertner; State Gang and Drug Force Coordinator Bob Bushman; Statewide Meth Coordinator Chuck Noerenberg. All had gathered at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center in Mankato Tuesday morning at the behest of Rep. Tim Walz, DFL-Minn., to discuss the progress and challenges of dealing with the methamphetamine problem in rural Minnesota.

The news they delivered was both good and bad. The bad news: Meth still remains one of the major problems for law enforcement and social services in Minnesota, one that costs the state in terms of violent crime, financial and property crime, child abuse and neglect and taxpayer dollars. According to the Revealing Meth in Minnesota website put up by the Minnesota County Attorneys Association:

• 90 percent of financial crimes investigated by the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force are connected to either meth or crack abuse
• 69 percent of Minnesota counties report that child protection cases have increased due to meth abuse
• the societal cost of meth to Minnesota taxpayers has topped $130 million annually

“When we realized that one in eight prisoners in our penal system were there because of meth, we knew we had a problem,” said Susan Gaertner, former president of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association.

more insideAll the presenters stressed that the meth problem was not just about crime but about the devastation it has on families and communities. Several panelists noted that unlike other types of substance abuse, meth is, as far as the sexes are concerned, an equal-opportunity destroyer. There are nearly as many female users as there are male, which makes the addiction even more devastating since women are the principal family caretakers.

It also creates havoc in other ways. State Gang and Drug Force Coordinator Bob Bushman said some people like to claim that drugs are a victimless crime, “but if you’ve ever seen a baby born addicted to meth, you know that’s not true.”

Yet there is good news about the problem as well. Jeff Hunsberger of the Minnesota Department of Human Services noted that meth use declined in 2006 after steadily rising from 2000 through 2005.

Dealing with the problem requires a multi-pronged approach of treatment, prevention and education as well as law enforcement. “We’re not going to arrest our way out of the drug problem,” Bushman said.

Hunsberger noted that even the most conservative studies say that $1.33 is returned to the taxpayer for every dollar spent on drug treatment programs; some studies say that return is actually much higher.  “We need to look at the total picture, including mental health,” said Sen. Rosen.

She pointed out that Minnesota has been a national leader in applying a broad-based approach to the problem. When the state began to craft legislation to deal with meth several years ago, “we were pretty much all by ourselves,” she said. Other states were also coping with the crisis, but there was no legislative model. Minnesota passed its first methamphetamine law in 2005, and since then the rest of the country has been looking to Minnesota as a leader.

Rep. Tim Walz, who moderated the panel, let the panelists do the talking. But the fact that his office set up the event points out that the problem requires a multi-level governmental approach. While counties deal with the meth problem most directly through law enforcement and social services, the state provides information, coordination and funding, and the federal government provides the majority of funding.

Rosen and Walz spoke of the need to pass legislation at both state and federal levels to provide enough money to tackle the problem on all fronts. Bushman pointed out that the meth problem transcends party lines.
]]> http://minnesotaindependent.com/1557/progress-against-meth-but-problem-still-critical/feed 10 http://minnesotaindependent.com/834/tim-walz-update http://minnesotaindependent.com/834/tim-walz-update#comments Wed, 29 Nov 2006 17:05:24 +0000 Leigh Pomeroy http://www.minnesotaindependent.com.php5-9.websitetestlink.com/?p=834 Tim Walz has segued in the last two years from laid-back school teacher to frenetic campaigner and now equally frenetic congressman-elect. It’s quite a transition. Though official announcements will be forthcoming, here’s what’s happening on the QT:…]]> Tim Walz has segued in the last two years from laid-back school teacher to frenetic campaigner and now equally frenetic congressman-elect. It’s quite a transition. Though official announcements will be forthcoming, here’s what’s happening on the QT:

more insideA congressional office location has been found for Mankato; another is being planned for Rochester and possibly a third in Worthington.

He has selected a chief of staff, but the official announcement won’t come for a few days. Hint: It’s someone familiar to the district and from my point-of-view a terrific choice. The future congressman has received over 3,500 resumes for various positions!

Already there have been mentions of possible GOP contenders for ’08, including State Senator Dick Day of Owatonna, Rochester Chamber of Commerce President John Wade, and State Senator Julie Rosen of Fairmont.

As for Gil Gutknecht attempting to gain back his seat, odds are it is highly unlikely. First of all, in his heart he believes in the 12-year limit he signed onto when he first ran in ’94. That’s why he wanted to run for Senate in ’06. But the powers-that-be in Washington put the kibosh on his plans, opting instead for Mark Kennedy