There have been whispers about this since the ballots were counted last Tuesday, but it is looking increasingly possible that the GOP is serious about some exceptionally poor chicanery in Minnesota:
Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota has been gearing up for a bid for the Republican presidential nomination for months. He chose not to run for re-election as governor. He has hit the early-state circuit. Everything is ready once he leaves office on Jan. 3.
Except for this: He may not be able to leave.
Under Minnesota law, the governor’s term extends as long as it takes to swear in a successor, even if a recount takes months. And that could just happen.
Democrat Mark Dayton, who served in the US Senate from 2001-2007, holds a lead of close to 9000 votes over Republican Tom Emmer. Never mind for a moment that the biggest swing in a recount that I could dig up was around 400 votes.
No matter. Both Emmer and state party chairman Tony Sutton made clear that they may challenge the results of the recount when it is expected to be completed in December.
But only, they vow, if they have a really, really good reason:
“If we are behind and we think that there are issues with the recount, we could file a contest,” said Tony Sutton, the chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota. “We’re not looking to kick this past the first of the year. We are not going to do things to throw stuff against the law and see what sticks.”
Of course, there might be another reason to challenge the outcome. Doing so would keep Pawlenty in office in January, when the Minnesota State Legislature convenes. That legislature's partisan makeup changed dramatically last week, as the GOP took a majority in both chambers.
That delay, of course, would afford that legislature the opportunity to run legislation by a much more sympathetic set of ears than they are likely to get when (not if...but when) Mark Dayton gets sworn in.
This is not, of course, anything that Pawlenty would be disappointed by. Not only would the outgoing GOP Governor get his first-and-only chance to work with a Republican legislature, but he can collect some chits from national Republicans, who place a lot of currency in politicians who work hard to screw Democrats. That could serve Pawlenty well as he gears up for what everyone presumes will be a run for President in 2012.
If Pawlenty had scruples, of course, he'd recuse himself from considering any legislation that emerges from the next legislature. Thus far, however, all that is being offered are weak-tea assurances:
In an interview this week, Mr. Pawlenty said that he would not seek to quickly sign any major legislation before the next governor is known. And the incoming state House speaker has promised not to try and ram legislation through for Mr. Pawlenty’s signature.
“If there was a holdover situation, it’s not something you try to exploit,” Mr. Pawlenty said.
Given the Governor that awaits the GOP majority in the state lege, and given the political pressures that will be brought to bear on Pawlenty, those assurances don't have the feel of an iron-clad guarantee.
As one might expect, the maven of Minnesota recounts in these parts, WineRev, has been all over this. Hopefully, this time around, his series of recount diaries end before New Years Eve.