DES MOINES, Iowa — Republican Tim Pawlenty, “T-Paw” to his supporters, has increasingly tied himself to the new crop of grass-roots activists in the 2012 presidential campaign.
So, maybe it is time to call the former Minnesota governor “Tea-Paw.”
He says his aggressive outreach to Tea Party audiences is one important part of a strategy to assemble the diverse network of backers he needs to go national and win the GOP nomination. He is not focusing solely on this emerging force in party politics, he said, perhaps mindful not to alienate other Republican groups
“I’m not trying to introduce myself to the Tea Party. I’m trying to introduce myself to the whole party . . . because I’m not known outside of Minnesota,” Pawlenty said in a phone interview ahead of a Saturday appearance at a Tea Party rally at the Iowa Statehouse.
He spoke at a similar rally in Boston on Friday and to the movement’s national summit in Phoenix in February.
A little-known Midwesterner trying to break out of a crowded GOP field, Pawlenty has said he needs to “win or do very well” in Iowa’s lead-off caucuses by attracting social conservatives and pro-business conservatives as well as newly motivated Tea Party followers. They make up a chunk of the state’s electorate: A Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll showed last fall that 39 percent of Iowa voters said they supported the movement.
But Pawlenty faces stiff competition for the allegiance of Iowa’s Tea Partyers from Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and others.
“There may be some folks who are running as candidates who are more deeply engrained, or were engrained earlier, in the Tea Party movement,” Pawlenty said in the interview.
Pawlenty drew on the movement’s critical eye about spending and the reach of government during his speech to about 200 Tea Party supporters who braved a harsh wind at the rally in Des Moines.
“We’re here today to send them this message: Don’t tread on me,” Pawlenty said, borrowing the line from the flags common at Tea Party rallies.
Cheers greeted Pawlenty when he hit on other familiar themes, including opposition to raising the government’s borrowing authority and support for a balanced-budget amendment.
