Pawlenty announces endorsements
Gov. Pawlenty hosted a "Facebook Townhall" tonight that attracted roughly 1,000 viewers. At the start of the event, Pawlenty gave his standard stump speech that included concerns about the direction of the federal government and a call for folks to consider themselves "constitutional conservatives" first.
Pawlenty also announced that his federal political action committee will support seven candidates for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House:
Tim Burns, running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 12th District
Robert Dold, running for Congress in Illinois' 10th District
Sean Duffy, running for Congress in Wisconsin's 7th District
Charles Djou, running for Congress in Hawaii's 1st District
Pat Meehan, running for Congress in Pennsylvania's 7th District
Gov. John Hoeven, running for U.S. Senate in North Dakota
Pat Toomey, running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.
One race Pawlenty hasn't endorsed in is Minnesota's race for governor. When asked, Pawlenty said he wasn't backing a candidate at this time and may wait until after the endorsing convention on April 30th.
The event should be considered a success since it received plenty of buzz from the national press (the Washington Post, MSNBC and Fox all wrote about it or interviewed Pawlenty) but it did have a few hiccups. The feed dropped out twice on my end and several others complained that the audio or video dropped out.
The event was also featured at the end of the 1st quarter of 2010. Pawlenty's PAC will have to report their fundraising totals on April 15th.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.