In his first post-election press conference, Gov. Tim Pawlenty promised an “orderly, timely, informed transition” to a new governor. Of course the only problem is we don’t know for sure who that new governor will be with the likely recount between Democrat Mark Dayton and Republican Tom Emmer. Pawlenty said he hopes and plans that new governor will take office on time on January 3. The governor will try to meet with Dayton and Emmer next week and joked that maybe he’d have them both in together “we’ll have them come in to work on the budget.” But he does not want to create two transition offices in the Capitol to set up “dueling transitions.”
The governor was laid back about the possibility of serving past his original term due to a disputed election. He doesn’t plan any great activism even with a Republican legislature. Pawlenty has a book tour planned for January and he doesn’t think that will interfere with the legislative session. The governor wouldn’t say whether a recount would impact his possible run for president. He repeatedly stated “I will fulfill my duties.”
Pawlenty also revealed some of our off the record conversation a couple of weeks ago “in the parking lot” when he told me all the internal polls he had access to were much closer than most of the public polls in the race for governor. The governor took on the media organizations whose polls were off calling them “reckless and corrosive” and saying they “affect psychology and momentum.”
