Conservative challenger could help Pawlenty

04/28/2006

Sue Jeffers might make governor look more moderate to voters

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

Even though she may be the longest of long shots, Minneapolis bar owner Sue Jeffers is at least a speed bump in Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s road to the Republican endorsement for re-election in June.

But she may inadvertently give his campaign a boost.

Jeffers, 49, a libertarian from New Brighton, formally announced Thursday that she would ask the state Republican Party to endorse her at its state convention in June.

That is unlikely to happen. Pawlenty is popular with Republican activists, while Jeffers is a political unknown with little money, organization or delegate support.

At a Capitol news conference, the feisty Jeffers acknowledged she’s an underdog but said she wants to give Republicans a choice.

“I am the only fiscal conservative running in this race,” she asserted.

She supported Pawlenty when he ran in 2002 but said she became disillusioned with him last year, when he and the Legislature increased state fees by $559 million, and again this year when he proposed nearly $1 billion in state borrowing to finance construction projects.

Jeffers said her “tipping point” was Pawlenty’s support for a new Twins ballpark financed by a Hennepin County sales tax without a voter referendum. Although Pawlenty favors a referendum, he has said he would sign a stadium bill that doesn’t require voter approval.

To suggest Pawlenty is not fiscally conservative, however, flies in the face of conventional political wisdom. Facing a $4.6 billion budget shortfall when he took office in 2003, the governor balanced the budget by slowing the rate of state spending growth while, with the exception of a new 75 cents-a-pack cigarette charge, he avoided increasing state tax rates.

“I think most Minnesotans would find the idea that Tim Pawlenty is not a fiscal conservative to be laughable,” said Mike Krueger, the governor’s campaign director.

Nonetheless, Jeffers’ challenge will remind conservative Republicans of two unpopular Pawlenty decisions: increasing the cigarette charge and supporting a government-subsidized Twins stadium.

“But in a broader sense, Sue Jeffers is giving the governor a gift,” said Sarah Janecek, Republican co-publisher of the electronic newsletter Politics in Minnesota. “She will attack him from the right, positioning him as the moderate in the race.”

That poses a problem for Democrats who have been trying to portray him as the most conservative Minnesota governor in recent history.

Though Jeffers may appeal to some fiscally conservative Republicans, she likely will have trouble winning support from the social conservatives who dominate the party. As a libertarian, she said, she doesn’t believe government should outlaw abortions, bar same-sex marriages or impose the death penalty — positions that contradict the Republican Party platform.

Jeffers owns Stub & Herb’s Restaurant near the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. She has been in the news as an outspoken opponent of smoking bans in Twin Cities bars and restaurants.

GOP officials contend Jeffers is not a Republican and have refused to give her their list of delegates and will try to block her from addressing their state convention.

Jeffers registered with the state campaign finance board as a Libertarian Party candidate, said Republican Party spokesman Mark Drake. “The Republican convention is open to Republicans; it is not a Libertarian Party convention.

“I think this is a publicity stunt, and at the end of the day she’s a fringe candidate,” Drake said. “This is her 15 minutes of fame.”

If Jeffers fails to win the Republican endorsement, she said, she would consider running as a Libertarian.