Pawlenty building presidential campaign team?

Fresh off of his decision not to seek a third term as Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty has begun preparing for his future in politics.  Minnesota Post’s Eric Black reports that Pawlenty has pulled together a team designed for a run at a national office, and makes the presumption that Pawlenty has his eyes on a challenge to Barack Obama:

Since at least April — well before he announced his decision not to run for a third term — Gov. Pawlenty has been laying the organizational and financial groundwork for a potential run for president.

Fund-raising is under way for an organization that would allow Pawlenty to travel around the country, showing his face, developing his message and forming alliances with like-minded Republicans. Professional political fund-raisers are working on this.

Pawlenty has directly addressed groups of potential donors, and checks have been written. …

The likeliest structure for the current phase would be the formation of a 501(c) (4) organization (named for the chapter of the tax code under which it operates). I have substantial reason to believe that this is what Team Pawlenty has created or is in the process of creating.

According to Minneapolis lawyer Sarah Duniway, who specializes in working with nonprofits and election law, a 501 (c) (4) is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization that can engage in issue advocacy and public education. It can fund-raise to support itself, put on issue conferences around the country, hire people to conduct research, even pay for polling if the polling is arguably related to the issues on which it was advocating. (Full diclosure: Duniway is married to my MinnPost teammate David Brauer.)

Having known Eric for a few years, I know that he has good instincts and connections in Minnesota and that he is cautious about his reporting, so I’d consider this credible.  It’s also not terribly surprising.  Pawlenty is only in his late 40s, very early for any politician to retire even after eight years as governor.  He’s obviously not interested in running for mayor of Eagan, and a national office is the obvious step.

I agree with Eric that this seems like a presidential-campaign team, but it could also be good groundwork for a Senate run.  Senators don’t have to campaign across the nation, but most Senate candidates conduct fundraisers out of state as well as in state.  Pawlenty could be keeping his options open in case Obama looks too tough to beat in 2012.  After all, Pawlenty would be just 52 in 2012 and 56 in 2016, which means he has plenty of time to aim at the top spot.  Instead of conducting a potentially losing campaign against Obama, Pawlenty could just aim at Amy Klobuchar and build presidential momentum from the US Senate.

Pawlenty has the toughness to run a good campaign, and the folksy, middle-class demeanor that could attract voters back to the GOP.  He’s certainly surprised a few Minnesota politicians with a political facewash, and he may be a uniting force in 2012 — in either race.

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