NEW COLUMN: Keeping Tabs on Tim Pawlenty

Editor's Note: Welcome to Pawlenty Watch, Patch’s compendium of news, opinion and various whimsy involving one of Minnesota’s most prominent presidential candidates -- who is also from Eagan.

Citizen Tim is in Florida this week in an attempt to establish a presence in the notoriously volatile state that tipped the 2000 presidential election toward the GOP. The Tampa Tribune reports that he will hold fundraisers in Orlando, Miami and Tampa, and will make a public appearance in Tampa Tuesday. While the article noted that Pawlenty has sound fundraising prospects in the Sunshine State, some observers aren’t so optimistic. “His campaign is stalled and in trouble,” said retired University of South Florida political scientist Darryl Paulson, a Republican. “His problem seems to be he’s got the support of a lot of politically well-connected names, but hasn’t been able to develop any grassroots support."

In Washington, D.C., the news isn’t much better. Politics in Minnesota reports that Christian Hinze, an influential blogger for D.C.-based outlet The Hill, says it’s time “to stop calling (Pawlenty) a first-tier candidate.” Hinze bases that assessment on a new Gallup Poll showing that Pawlenty has only a 2 percent showing among Republican contenders for the nomination.

One bit of good news for Pawlenty this week is that he got a sorry-bout-that from an Iowa talk radio host. Simon Conway of Des Moines’ WHO radio apologized for suggesting in a Friday interview with Pawlenty that his campaign had tried to dig up scandalous information on Michele Bachmann by contacting her former interns. “I find myself no longer able to substantiate the story and I sincerely and unreservedly apologize to Gov. Pawlenty,” said Conway in a statement. The Pawlenty campaign expressed appreciation for the mea culpa.

Speaking of the Hawkeye State, Pawlenty’s presence in Florida doesn’t mean he doesn’t also have big eyes for Iowa. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin writes that Pawlenty has spent more than $440,000 on advertising in Iowa, far more than the expenditures of his competitors. “If he finishes down in the pack,” Rubin notes, “donors are unlikely to keep supporting him. So it makes perfect sense that Pawlenty would spend anything and everything it takes to stay in contention.”