Vin Weber, a former Minnesota GOP congressman who was a top adviser to Pawlenty before he dropped out of the 2012 race, acknowledges some similarities between Walker and Pawlenty’s situations.

“Everybody has been talking for a long time about Chris Christie being too New Jersey,” said Weber. “There’s a Midwestern thing that sometimes doesn’t translate in the rest of the country, and Scott Walker has to worry about that.”

In some ways, Walker is being stereotyped by the political press and others, as he and Pawlenty are much different politicians.