Campaigning as All Things to All Republicans
By JEFF ZELENY
Published: March 13, 2011
CONCORD, N.H. — Many aspiring Republican presidential candidates are going to great lengths to avoid the spotlight, but not Tim Pawlenty. He is doing whatever he can to step into it.
Cheryl Senter for The New York Times
Mr. Pawlenty played in a hockey game in Concord with local business people.Multimedia
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Cheryl Senter for The New York Times
In New Hampshire on Friday, Tim Pawlenty, in blue tie at left with his wife, Mary, visited Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover.
Few audiences are too small for Mr. Pawlenty, who turns up at Tea Party rallies, church forums and beer and pizza parties with College Republicans. He even hit the ice to play hockey here, with a local television crew following closely along.
Mr. Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota, is trying to make equal appeals to the diverse constituencies of the Republican Party as he introduces himself as a potential candidate. He stands out among the major contenders in trying to assertively court all factions that will help select a nominee to challenge President Obama.
“I want to be every person’s candidate — that’s my goal,” Mr. Pawlenty said. “The notion that you can’t do more than one thing at a time, I think, is a flawed premise.”
At a recent Tea Party Patriots rally, he pronounced, “The government’s too damn big!” To an evangelical audience, he declared, “The Constitution was designed to protect people of faith from government, not to protect government from people of faith.” And to Republicans in New Hampshire, he closed with a gentle plea: “Please leave with hope and optimism.”
It is an uncertain gambit for Mr. Pawlenty, who rose through the ranks of state politics over nearly two decades and now faces the tumult of a Republican presidential primary in which the path to the nomination is far from clear. And seeking to keep a foot in all Republican camps, rather than concentrating on a more targeted slice of voters, could leave the impression that he is trying too hard.
His record as a fiscally conservative governor in a politically divided state is solid, but he still faces stiff competition winning over Tea Party supporters. An evangelical Christian, Mr. Pawlenty has yet to build a loyal following among religious conservatives. He lacks a deep fund-raising network and his name recognition is low, but he was among the finalists
Senator John McCain was considering for his running mate in 2008.
Yet in a prospective field whose most prominent members have some heavy baggage as well as higher profiles, one of Mr. Pawlenty’s strongest assets could be the opportunity to sell himself on his own terms — in policy and personal style.
Unlike Newt Gingrich, he does not have the political scars that come with a long career under intense scrutiny. He does not enjoy the intensity of support directed at Sarah Palin, nor does he generate the passion of her detractors. And Mitt Romney’s efforts to remake himself as more of a social conservative provide an object lesson in handling questions about authenticity.
“I think the people who get tossed around in this process are people who don’t have their compass set, who don’t have their feet firmly planted on the ground,” Mr. Pawlenty said in an interview. “And then they start to just grab for the wind and they flop around. That’s not me.”
He is taking an old-fashioned approach, hoping to earn respect for showing up nearly everywhere. He seldom leaves a room before talking to all who are waiting. Then he makes time for reporters, unlike some of his rivals, particularly Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, who exited through a side door at an appearance last week as journalists approached.
Mr. Pawlenty, 50, has been a fixture at Republican events in Iowa and New Hampshire for more than a year. He barely climbs above the margin of error in national polls — three percentage points or so — but those surveys do not measure the importance of face-to-face introductions he has been making.
The knock on Mr. Pawlenty, according to conversations with voters, is that his speeches sound sincere but do not always sizzle. At a faith forum last week in Iowa, he displayed vigor. But the next day at the Statehouse, the talk among several Republicans was that it seemed he had suddenly developed a Southern accent as he tried connecting to voters by speaking louder and with more energy.
The political blog of Radio Iowa heard it too and noted, “Pawlenty seems to be adopting a Southern accent as he talks about his record as governor.” As he spoke of the country’s challenges, he dropped the letter G, saying: “It ain’t gonna be easy. This is about plowin’ ahead and gettin’ the job done.”
Mr. Pawlenty is positioning himself as a leading alternative to Mr. Romney, who starts the race with a significant fund-raising advantage in his second bid for the party’s nomination. But that is the most sought-after role in the Republican field, one that Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi is also hoping to fill.
Mr. Pawlenty has benefited from Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana opting to stay out of the race. But his efforts to win Tea Party support may be complicated by a fellow Minnesotan, Representative Michele Bachmann, who spent the weekend in New Hampshire, testing her own presidential bid.
At a Republican gathering here last week, as people waited for handshakes and autographs, Diana Lachance of Derry stood about three feet from Mr. Pawlenty as she told a reporter, “I love Michele Bachmann!” She said that she appreciated Mr. Pawlenty’s sincerity, but that she needed to learn more about him.
James Kirkpatrick, who met Mr. Pawlenty last summer, became the first Republican county chairman in Iowa to support him. He said Mr. Pawlenty’s appeal included his ability to perform well in the Midwest, including Minnesota, which last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1972. “When other candidates come up,” Mr. Kirkpatrick said, “I ask them, ‘What states can you bring to the table?’ ”
Mr. Pawlenty presents himself to audiences as a Republican who trimmed government and stood up to labor unions, prevailing in a 44-day transit strike that led to pension and benefits changes for bus drivers. He tells his up-by-the-bootstraps story about growing up in a working-class neighborhood, his mother dying when he was 16, working in a grocery store and being the first person in his family to go to college.
Mr. Pawlenty has been considering a presidential bid for so long that he is already on his second stump speech. Last year, he opened nearly every appearance with a quip about “my red-hot, smoking wife, the first lady of Minnesota.” That crowd pleaser has been replaced by a pair of partisan jokes, with the punch line aimed at Mr. Obama.
“I do have to give him credit on at least one thing,” Mr. Pawlenty told a New Hampshire audience. “He’s accomplished something that is really almost impossible: he has proven that somebody can win a Nobel Prize and deserve it less than Al Gore.”
As the crowd laughed lightly, he added: “I’m not one of those who question President Obama’s birth certificate, but I do question what planet he’s from.”
Mr. Pawlenty, a year older than Mr. Obama, is one of the youngest prospective Republican candidates. He is sensitive to questions about his experience, which came to light here when a voter asked how he believed the president had handled Libya and other foreign policy challenges.
“For a governor, I’ve got an unusual amount of foreign policy or international security experience,” he said. “I’ve been to Iraq five times. I’ve been to Afghanistan three times. I’ve been all over the Middle East, including Israel, Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait and other places.”
After the soliloquy about himself, Mr. Pawlenty answered the question.
