Pawlenty admits warning to DFLer, denies actual threat
"MN Governor"04/15/2008
Governor says he told aide to deliver 'cheap shots aren't free' line to House leader Tony Sertich after he criticized the governor, but says Sertich is 'over-dramatizing.'
By PATRICIA LOPEZ,
Star Tribune
April 14, 2008
The already rocky relations between Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and DFL legislative leaders appeared to deteriorate a little further Monday when Pawlenty acknowledged delivering a veiled warning to a House leader.
Asked by reporters whether he had recently instructed his chief of staff to tell Majority Leader Tony Sertich that "cheap shots are cheap, but they're not free," Pawlenty replied, "Yes." But he denied that he had specifically threatened projects Sertich had in the state bonding bill at the time.
Sertich said he was "shocked" by the governor's candor, which came at the end of an unrelated news conference. "I thought he had said it in a moment of anger," Sertich said. "But clearly it continued on. ... It's unbecoming for a governor to threaten another legislator just because they disagree."
Although the gubernatorial shot was delivered in mid-March, it wasn't until Friday that Sertich went public with the conversation. He declined at that time to name the aide who called him, but the governor's office confirmed later that it was Chief of Staff Matt Kramer.
The dust-up started when Sertich echoed an oft-voiced complaint among DFLers that Pawlenty was insufficiently engaged in the session and apparently preferred traveling out of state to dealing with pushy legislators of the opposing party.
Later that day, Kramer called with a message from the governor. Sertich said Kramer relayed the cheap shot line, then said Pawlenty was looking forward to reviewing projects in the upcoming bonding bill.
Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, contends that Pawlenty "clearly followed through" on the implied threat, because Sertich lost a local project when Pawlenty vetoed 52 projects in the bill, nearly all in DFL districts. Pawlenty said DFLers had delivered an outsized, pork-laden bill.
Sertich said he went public Friday about the March phone call over concern about the fate of a pending bill for a cancer study on the Iron Range.
Needle or hammer?
As a former House majority leader and as governor, Pawlenty has been known for his sharp tongue and needling wit. On Monday, he appeared to treat the incident as little more than another bit of partisan jousting.
Sertich, he told reporters, "is fond of the theater and he likes to be involved in drama. I think he's over-dramatizing a bit." Pawlenty said while the cheap shots line was, indeed, his own, "we did not connect those comments to any sort of threat regarding legislation or projects. I think that is something he's taking liberties with."
Sertich said that while Pawlenty has cracked wise in the past, there is a difference between a shot delivered for effect in public, as part of debate, and one passed along in private.
"People need to know that's how this guy does business," Sertich said, "and I don't think it's right."
Pawlenty is scheduled to meet privately with legislative leaders -- including Sertich -- on Wednesday to start talks on the state's projected $936 million budget deficit and other policy differences. By then they'll also need to come together to present a unified front on the Northwest airlines merger, which could cost the state jobs and tax revenues.
Pawlenty's spokesman, Brian McClung, said DFLers need to be less prickly. "We're done addressing this," he said Monday of the flap, "but it might be a good time for everyone to lighten up a little bit as we head into the final weeks of the session."