Why Does Gov. Pawlenty Keep Attacking Matt Entenza?

Twice in One Week, Pawlenty Goes After Entenza On-Air

ST. PAUL, Minn. - This morning, after hearing for the second time in one week that Gov. Tim Pawlenty had attacked him on-air, Matt Entenza made the following statement:

"Yesterday, Tim Pawlenty spent part of his lunch hour going after me on MPR. Interestingly, it was in conjunction with Minnesota 2020, the think tank I founded in 2007. More interestingly, he didn't dispute their many criticisms of him - he mostly seemed irritated that anyone would criticize him. I left Minnesota 2020 last spring, but I'm very proud of the work I did there.

"Apparently I'm quite a burr under the governor's saddle. My guess is it goes back to 2005, when then-Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson and I helped force him to raise a tobacco tax in spite of his ‘no new taxes' pledge. We saved health care for hard-working families who can't afford it and made sure our schools didn't endure further gut-wrenching cuts. We felt a little bad for the governor, so we allowed him to call the increase a ‘fee,' but whatever you call it, it was the right thing to do for Minnesota.

"The governor ought to spend less time on the radio and in places like Iowa and New Hampshire and more time actually addressing the challenges our state faces and taking advantages of opportunities in front of us. You can bet that as governor, that's what I'm going to do."

The Clips

- MPR: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/02/03/midday1/ (At approximately 31:15 into the program)
- WCCO: www.wccoradio.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=4367296 (At approximately one minute prior to the show's conclusion)

Matt Entenza is a leading Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) candidate for governor of Minnesota. His campaign revolves around three core principles: growing jobs all over Minnesota by focusing on the potential of the clean energy economy, providing better educational opportunities to our children and those seeking higher education, and ensuring health care for all. Entenza was a white-collar crime prosecutor prior to representing St. Paul in the Minnesota legislature for 12 years, including four years during which he also served as House Minority Leader and led the DFL to significant gains. In 2007, Entenza founded Minnesota 2020, a think tank that has been an important voice for progressive policy positions and which he chaired until April 2009. Entenza is a graduate of Worthington High School in Worthington, Minn., Macalester College in St. Paul, and the University of Minnesota Law School.

Visit www.entenza.com.

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