McCain to stop in Minnesota today

04/12/2006

The senator, seen as an ‘08 presidential contender, is to appear with Gutknecht and Pawlenty.

Aaron Blake, Star Tribune
Last update: April 11, 2006 – 11:47 PM

WASHINGTON - Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain will make his second trip in five months to Minnesota today when he appears with fellow Republicans Rep. Gil Gutknecht in Rochester and Gov. Tim Pawlenty in St. Cloud and St. Paul.

McCain’s ostensible goal is to help 2006 candidates with their campaigns. But McCain, considered by many a leading candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, is traveling like someone with an eye on 2008. He is visiting six states this week, including Iowa and New Hampshire, where the earliest nominating contests are held, and Minnesota, Florida and Ohio, which are expected to be pivotal states in the presidential election.

“The joy of being a battleground state is that you get presidential hopefuls in 2006,” said Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Duffy said McCain is focusing on battleground states and the most conservative states.

McCain’s visit to Iowa will be his first, while other likely 2008 Republican candidates, Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, have each been there six times, Duffy said. McCain skipped Iowa in 2000, and some say that hurt his campaign.

McCain finished fifth in a straw poll held at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis last month. But he had asked voters who supported him to write in President Bush. He would have finished second with Bush’s votes.

In his last visit to Minnesota, in November, McCain spoke at a Minneapolis fundraiser that benefited recent combat veterans. Today, he will appear with Gutknecht at the Ramada Hotel in Rochester in the morning before meeting with Pawlenty at St. Cloud Regional Airport and then appearing again with Pawlenty at the State Office Building in St. Paul.