Gov. Tim Pawlenty didn't have much interest in local press questions about his political future today. We chased him after his big announcement with U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on Minnesota becoming the first state to get federal dough under that Urban Partnership Agreement. What it means is more money and less congestion along 35W. But I was working on another story about potential candidates for governor (we monitored who was working the convention floor this past weekend).
So when I asked about his timeframe for announcing his re-election plans he reminded me that he'll decide in 2009. When I followed up to see if those plans had changed at all he tersely stated again, "I think I've always said it will be decided in 2009." With that his communications director tried to end the questioning. But surely the governor couldn't shoot down the always playful and artfully worded questions of Eric Eskola? EE has a knack of getting great quotes out of governors. He's wonderful at not offending but still probing. When Eric asked if there was anything new on the VP front, Pawlenty said "no" that's it, just "no." When I tried again to salvage something out of our quickly crumbling Q & A with "Anything about McCain's visit next week?" I got the increasingly popular response "no." A finally volley was my desperate "Will you be there?" Pawlenty responded with "of course" as he walked away.
Maybe we're not as skillful as the national press who get him to amiably talk at length about national politics. I know he was at a state event and doesn't like to mix state business with campaign business, but since we were off site we thought we'd get some leeway. Gov. Pawlenty generally pleases the state press corps with his availability. We appreciate when he'll stay late taking a bevy of unrelated questions at press conferences. It's been one of his skills as a communicator because then the press has his comments on nearly every issue they're writing about. It seems Pawlenty’s political future is still not something he wants us writing about in his home state.