Endorsement: Hatch offers state needed change

10/30/2006

As governor, he’d stand up for average Minnesotans.

Star Tribune Endorsement
Published: October 29, 2006

“Time for a change.” Today we apply that enduring political slogan to the race for governor. It will take a new governor for state government to become a more dependable ally of average Minnesotans with above-average aspirations for themselves and their state. The Star Tribune recommends the election of DFLer Mike Hatch.

Those who think that today’s apparently sound economy should guarantee a second term for Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty are missing the anxiety many Minnesotans feel about the long-term prospects for themselves and their families. Hatch seems to understand that Minnesota has veered off in the wrong direction; to get back, he sees that the state must return to Minnesota’s bipartisan tradition of investing in both its people and its infrastructure in order to retain Minnesota’s competitive edge and high quality of life.

Pawlenty demonstrated with his first budget that he was willing to run up the price of a college education, deny poor families child care, slap a surcharge on nursing home residents and take away health insurance from the working poor, all to adhere to a “no new taxes” campaign pledge. Two years later, with the veto of a forward-looking transportation bill, Pawlenty dashed hopes that the state would make a serious move anytime soon to ease serious transportation woes.

The 2003 state budget and the 2005 transportation veto rank among the worst policy moves by a Minnesota governor in a generation. They outweigh the good Pawlenty has done by promoting merit pay for teachers, backing new stadiums, promoting prescription drug importation and getting on board the Northstar commuter rail proposal.

Pawlenty says he has made mistakes and learned a lot. But he’s given Minnesotans little reason to believe that he will charge hard at what Hatch correctly sees as state government’s biggest challenge: retaining a large and secure middle class.

Hatch knows meeting that challenge starts with access to high-quality education. A cut in college tuition is one of the few promises he’s made. While we’d prefer more need-based student aid, Hatch is on the right track.

Next on Hatch’s to-do list is access to high-quality preschool for low-income children. He understands that investing in the very young may be the best way to close a widening economic gap between rich and poor.

Hatch, too, acknowledges having made mistakes. To succeed, a Gov. Hatch should be less self-aggrandizing and quick-shooting than Attorney General Hatch has been. But the commitment to serving average people he exhibited as attorney general would be a huge asset in the governor’s office.

Hatch is a much better prospective governor today than he was when he first sought the office 16 years ago. He’s more willing to risk political capital for the good of this state. He sees the threat that mistrust in government represents, and understands that the next governor must restore that trust. He has a vision of an inclusive prosperity, a good plan for achieving it and the ability to sell that plan.

If the governor’s office could be won by issuing the best position papers, Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson would win. But winning the office and succeeding once there require an ability to sell ideas, build broad support, assemble allies in the Legislature and mobilize voters—all things that Hutchinson and the weak IP have thus far failed to do.

Hutchinson’s good ideas should be borrowed by Gov. Hatch.