Many recalls, too much democracy

Happened to watch the election returns from Wisconsin on MSNBC Tuesday night, and if you're honest, you know it was a rough night for progressives. It started to be noticeable on Monday when Ed Schultz (or "Big Eddy" as he likes to call himself), started to have a haunted look. He was out there in Madison surrounded by Union types who would cheer, or boo, or moo on cue, but despite his bluster, you just knew things weren't shaping up the way he'd hoped.

Ed kept going on about how the evil Republicans had poured in all this money, but the recall forces had the enthusiasm and the ground game.

Eddie may have trouble differentiating between enthusiasm and desperation. What he didn't explain is that after all the sound and fury of the recall effort, his team actually lost ground in each of the six special elections this week..

The numbers are still a little hazy, but it appears that the two sides spent around $35 million on the recall, all in an effort to punish Republican State Senators who voted for the Budget Repair Bill Governor Walker introduced in February. This controversial legislation was crafted to cure a $3.6 state billion deficit, and required state employees to contribute 12.6% of the cost of their health insurance premiums and pay 5.8% of their salary into the Wisconsin Retirement System, ending the free ride they'd enjoyed previously. The other two most significant impacts were to limit collective bargaining rights for most public employees and to prohibit employers from collecting union dues.

The result was a political tantrum unlike anything seen in years. For weeks, protests in Madison the state capital dominated cable news shows with their distinct lack of civility. All 14 Democrat Senators fled the state to try to prevent a vote, demonstrators mobbed and camped out at and in the Capital building, Republican lawmakers were stalked at their homes, and local businesses were threatened if they did not join the effort to foil the Governor's legislation.

Though Walker might have moved too aggressively on the collective bargaining issue, most of his package was the kind of fiscal castor oil that states and the federal government will need to get their balance sheets in order. If incumbents in Wisconsin and elsewhere fear immediate retaliation that could cost them their jobs, it will make them even less likely to cut deals and make difficult choices.

Equally troubling is that the Wisconsin recalls have turned into magnets for shocking amounts of special interest money, sluiced into the state by conservative groups and pro-union organizations that see the recalls as an existential battleground. Estimates are that third-party groups have spent as much as $40 million on the nine recall elections, which would more than double the amount spent on all 116 of the state's legislative elections last fall.

Beyond Wisconsin, recall rage remains limited, in part because just 19 states allow recalls elof governors and state legislators. One is California, where voters recalled unpopular Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, a switch that did little to solve the state's deep fiscal and political woes.

At the local level, where at least 29 states allow recalls, Governing.com says 57 mayors faced recall attempts in 2010, more than double the 23 the year before. In some places, recalls seem like political sport: Voters in Johnstown, Colo., tried to oust the mayor in part for his plan to switch from diagonal parking to parallel parking. But they're a sport states would be wise to limit. In an era of growing deficits and dwindling resources, the problems are far too serious to be left to endless second-guessing and permanent campaigns.

Tim Pawlenty drops out of presidential race

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is dropping out of the presidential race, sources told CBS News on Sunday.

According to a campaign source, Pawlenty told supporters on a conference call Sunday morning that he would announce his withdrawal from the race on ABC's "This Week" after a disappointing finish at Saturday's Ames straw poll in Ames, Iowa.

Speaking to ABC's "This Week," Pawlenty said his campaign needed a lift in the straw poll.

"The pathway forward for me doesn't really exist and so we're going to end the campaign," he said.

Pawlenty finished a distant third in the poll, behind Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

Pawlenty's message Sunday was the opposite of the one he offered after the results of the straw poll came out Saturday.

"Congrats to Rep. Bachmann on her win. Our campaign needed to show progress and we did. I'm eager for the campaign ahead," he tweeted Saturday evening.

Asked by "This Week" whether he would be interested in being a vice presidential contender, Pawlenty responded, "That's not something I'm even going to consider."

Pawlenty said he might endorse a candidate down the road.

Ex-Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty ends White House run

AMES, Iowa -- If things had gone a little differently in 2008, John McCain would have ignored the advice of Lindsey Graham, and his gut, and chosen the safest possible running mate. That would have been Tim Pawlenty, the two-term governor of Minnesota. Graham's predicition was that Pawlenty would perform fine, and help the ticket to a seven-point loss -- which is what McCain got anyway. But a Vice Presidential Candidate Pawlenty would have become, by default, a national star.
McCain didn't choose Pawlenty. He chose Sarah Palin, which started the GOP base's love affair with an uncompromising, wildly-swinging mother of five. Pawlenty remained governor, ending his term with a successful confrontation with Democrats, and entering the 2012 presidential race as the candidate most pundits could see a rational path to the presidency for. But the Republican base thought it caught a glimpse of the next Ronald Reagan in 2008. In 2009 and 2010, it fell in love all over again with Tea Party politicians who declared total war on Barack Obama. It was also ready, in a way it had not been ready before, to give its presidential nomination to a woman. There might have been an opening for Michele Bachmann anyway. (Pawlenty had first encountered and opposed 11 years ago when she was an insurgent Republican activist.) The rise of Palin, though, created a need and a certainty among Republicans for an exciting female conservative candidate.


Pawlenty tried to turn up the heat on Obama and his GOP rivals. But it often came across unnatural and he never was able stoked the passions of voters.
"What I brought forward, I thought, was a rational, established, credible, strong record of results, based on experience governing — a two-term governor of a blue state. But I think the audience, so to speak, was looking for something different," he said.
In recent weeks, he withered under the rise of tea party favorite Michele Bachmann, whose rallying cry is a sure-fire applause line about making Obama a one-term president, and libertarian-leaning Ron Paul, as well as the promise of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the sharp-tongued Texan who entered the race Saturday.
"I thought I would have made a great president," Pawlenty said. "I do believe we're going to have a very good candidate who is going to beat Barack Obama."
He didn't immediately endorse a candidate.
Bachmann was quick to praise him, perhaps mindful of the need to broaden her appeal and reach his backers, who span the ideological spectrum.
"I wish him well," Bachmann said. "He brought a really important voice into the race and I am grateful that he was in. He was really a very good competitor."
The two-term ex-governor of a Democratic-leaning state was on Arizona Sen. John McCain's short list for the vice presidential spot in 2008. He had spent roughly two years laying the groundwork for his 2012 campaign and had hoped to become the alternative to the national front-runner, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
But this summer he unexpectedly found himself in a grudge match with Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman who shot to the top of polls in Iowa after getting into the race. Pawlenty struggled to raise money and connect with voters. He poured most of his cash and time into Iowa in the run up to Saturday's straw poll, a test of organizational strength and popularity in the state whose caucuses lead off the GOP nomination fight.
Pawlenty had acknowledged that he needed a strong finish in the straw poll to show momentum and quiet concerns that his campaign was faltering. He put it all on the line, spending the bulk of his campaign account on TV ads ahead of the contest and on a statewide tour of Iowa.
But Bachmann won with 4,823 votes, while Texas Rep. Paul got 4,671. Pawlenty received 2,293.
Pawlenty said his message "didn't get the kind of traction or lift that we needed and hoped for coming into the and out of the Ames straw poll. We needed to get some lift to continue on and to have a pathway forward. That didn't happen."
Even after the poll, Pawlenty suggested to supporters late Saturday night that he wasn't dropping out. He called the test vote here "an important first step on the road to the Republican nomination and, ultimately, the White House.
"This is a long process to restore America — we are just beginning, and I'm eager for the campaign."
Still, he said in a statement after the results were announced: "We have a lot more work to do."
Hours later, he reversed course in the face of a daunting challenge: convincing donors who were slow to give in the months leading up to the straw poll that he was still a viable candidate. Had he stayed in the race, he would have been competing for money in an expanded field as Perry, a prolific fundraiser with deep ties to the party's biggest donors, entered the race.
Said Pawlenty: "We weren't going to have the fuel to keep the car going down the road."
In Iowa, Pawlenty's exit means there's now an available contingent of top GOP staff and consultants, including former state party chairman, former advisers to President George W. Bush and senior advisers to Mike Huckabee's winning 2008 caucus campaign, including Sarah Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor's daughter. Top legislators who had signed on to Pawlenty's camp also now are free to rally behind other candidates.
It's not yet clear the size of the electorate Pawlenty frees up. GOP activists commonly praised his skill and background, but many were holding out until they met other candidates. This was an especially common reaction among a class of pro-business Republicans in Iowa.
On paper, Pawlenty, 50, seemed to have all the right ingredients as a candidate.
His blue-collar upbringing offered him a natural rapport with middle-class America. He governed as a fiscal hard-liner in a left-leaning state, winning his second term in a year when Republicans elsewhere got drubbed. He made inroads with the right crowds and assembled an all-star cast of advisers with loads of presidential campaign experience.
Pawlenty ran a traditional operation. In the lead-up to his campaign, he spread checks around to local politicians in key states through a political action committee while putting a heavy focus on small-scale events in places such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
But Pawlenty struggled to connect. He came off as bland and rehearsed next to more dynamic contenders. He languished in the polls. Perry's candidacy shoved Pawlenty further to the side.
His inability to stoke the passions of voters the way other candidates and even noncandidates have was evident.
"He said the right things, that we're going to limit the size of government and hold down spending," Sam Buck, a retired veteran from Winterset, said last week after hearing Pawlenty speak. "I like him ... but let's see what Perry of Texas does."
Pawlenty had been building momentum after a May campaign launch in which he framed himself as the one in the race willing to deliver the hard truths and confront public policy sacred cows. The climb screeched to a halt in a New Hampshire debate in early June, when he shied away from the chance to back up prior tough talk about Romney when they were face to face. It reinforced worries among some Republicans that he wouldn't be willing to take the fight to Obama as the nominee.
In that same debate, Bachmann declared herself a candidate and immediately cast a long shadow Pawlenty had trouble escaping.
Pawlenty tried for weeks to reel in Bachmann, questioning her accomplishments in office and framing her as a perpetual naysayer. In Thursday's debate, Pawlenty went even harder at her and said all of the major policies she proudly fought came to pass anyway.
"If that's your view of effective leadership with results, please stop because you're killing us.

Bachmann, Perry seek advantage as Pawlenty exits GOP race

Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, dropped out of the presidential race Sunday morning after finishing a distant third in Saturday’s Iowa GOP straw poll.


Candidates who go all-in but fall well short in Ames typically find it difficult to raise money, and without personal wealth to fall back on, Mr. Pawlenty decided to cut his losses and bow out. In addition, the entry of Texas Gov. Rick Perry into the race Saturday, combined with Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann’s victory in the straw poll, has shifted the focus to their expected battle for the hearts and minds of conservatives.


As things look now, the weekend scrambling of the race highlights three top players: Governor Perry, Congresswoman Bachmann, and Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts.


There may be a longer-than-usual slog toward a winner than Republicans are used to. Perry enters the race as a top-tier candidate, second in national polls of GOP voters only to Mr. Romney. Bachmann was already placing third in polls, even before her victory in the Iowa straw poll Saturday, and has now solidified her status as a major contender.


Each of the three has planted a flag in different early-contest states: Bachmann in Iowa, Romney in New Hampshire, and Perry in South Carolina, where he announced his candidacy. Of the three, it’s easiest to see Romney holding onto his first-place perch in New Hampshire, which he has been cultivating for years, and where his low-key approach on social issues fits the Northeastern sensibility.


Bachmann begins the race to win the first nominating contest – the Iowa caucuses in early 2012 – as the favorite. She leaned heavily on her Iowa roots in her straw poll speech, with a nary a hint that she has lived in Minnesota most of her life. More important, her evangelical Christian faith and tea party activism make her a good fit for Iowa Republicans, where the party is dominated by social conservatives who have embraced the tea party’s low-tax, small-government message.


But Perry has the potential to knock Bachmann off her Iowa perch. He, too, speaks freely of his evangelical Christian beliefs, is popular with some tea partyers, but also has close ties to the national GOP establishment, which Bachmann does not have. He can also trump her on experience: He has been governor of Texas for more than 10 years and has presided over strong job creation. Since entering politics, Bachmann has only been a legislator and, as Pawlenty charged in the GOP debate last Thursday, has a thin record of accomplishment.


It’s a swing district and it's a district that elected Gov. Jesse Ventura, and so I’ve been able to attract a lot of people to vote for me who are Democrats and independents," Bachmann said. "That’s what we have to do. This won’t be just a conservative election, this is really going to be an economics election. People will want to know who can turn the country around that will be the big question.”


Contrasting her record with Perry’s, Bachmann argued that she is "a proven, effective advocate in Washington DC against the issues people really care about."


"I’ve been on the front lines,” she continued. "I was the first member of Congress to introduce the repeal of Obamacare; Dodd-Frank; I led for the last two months against raising the debt ceiling, against the TARP vote."


"Issue after issue after issue, I've been at the tip of the spear and I’ve been a champion for people on these issues," she said. "I've been the fighter."


Meanwhile Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who announced his president bid Saturday in South Carolina, continued his swing through New Hampshire before heading to Iowa later today where he will share a stage with Bachmann.


During an interview with WMUR-TV in New Hampshire, Perry took an early swipe at Mitt Romney’s record on jobs as governor of Massachusetts. During Romney’s years in office, Massachusetts ranked near the bottom of the 50 states in job creation – with a percentage increase of about 1%, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.


Perry said voters should look at Romney’s track record as governor of Massachusetts against his years as governor in Texas. "Mine doesn’t need any propping up. We’ll just let it stand it there and let people examine it."


The fact is this race is going to be about jobs; this is going to be about who can create an environment where people know that they can take care of their families," Perry said in the interview when asked about his record compared to others in the field.


I happen to think that I'm as qualified, or better qualified, than anyone in the field to not only make that claim, but to lay out that vision and then lay out those principles that have worked well in Texas. We’ve created more jobs than any other state in the nation. As a matter of fact in the last two years, we’ve created almost half of all the jobs created in America.

Pawlenty Drops 2012 Presidential Bid

Reporting from Portsmouth, N.H. and Ames, Ia.— After finishing a distant third place in the crucial Ames Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty withdrew from the presidential race Sunday, telling supporters and friends that after much prayer with his wife, he did not see a pathway forward.


Pawlenty, who announced his decision to donors and supporters on a conference call this morning, had centered his campaign on his neighboring state of Iowa, hoping that his credentials as social and fiscal conservative would give him broad appeal to first-in-the-nation caucus goers.


But the laid-back, amiable governor failed to catch on in the polls, even after building a widely-admired staff and touring Iowa for weeks in a modest RV with a grueling schedule. Though Pawlenty drew strong crowds at some of his events, voters often left undecided. And the surge for Michele Bachmann, a Congresswoman from his home state, combined with the formidable entry of Texas Gov. Rick Perry Saturday proved to be too much to withstand, despite the more than $1 million he spent organizing for it.


The message Pawlenty was offering "didn't get the kind of traction or lift that we needed and hoped for coming into the and out of the Ames straw poll. We needed to get some lift to continue on and to have a pathway forward. That didn't happen," he said.
"Obviously, we had some success raising money, but we needed to continue that, and Ames was a benchmark for that. And if we didn't do well in Ames, we weren't going to have the fuel to keep the car going down the road," he added.
Pawlenty received 13 percent of the vote in the Saturday poll, which is not generally a marker of the future presidential nominee. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann received 28 percent of the nearly 17,000 votes cast followed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who earned 27 percent. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum earned 9 percent and businessman Herman Cain received 8 percent.
But Pawlenty, who had relied on organizational strength and popularity in the lead-off caucuses state, has struggled to gain traction in Iowa, where he and Bachmann, who was born in the state, have conducted a surly back-and-forth.
After his third-place finish, Pawlenty issued a statement saying that he merely needed to show progress, and had achieved that goal.
"We are now moving onto the next phase of our campaign. Over the coming weeks we will be visiting New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida while continuing to grow our already strong ground game in Iowa," Pawlenty said.
But a senior adviser told Fox News that during a Sunday morning conference call, Pawlenty told supporters, "We cannot envision a path forward to victory and so therefore, we made a decision to end the campaign.