Minnesota / Pawlenty campaign cost $3.9M

01/31/2007

Incumbent governor rejected state funding


Bill Salsibury
Pioneer Press


Gov. Tim Pawlenty spent a record $3.9 million on his re-election campaign last year, according to a campaign finance report filed Tuesday.

Pawlenty was able to run the most expensive campaign ever by a Minnesota gubernatorial candidate because he refused to accept the state's public subsidies, which include a $2.4 million spending limit. His campaign manager, Michael Krueger, said last fall the Republican governor had to break the spending caps to defend himself from Democratic-affiliated political groups spending large sums to defeat him.

Pawlenty's report, which was filed a day before today's reporting deadline, showed that after starting the election year with $721,000 in the bank, he raised $3.4 million in 2006. He ended the year with $170,000 in his treasury.

According to the Associated Press, the Independence Party's Peter Hutchinson reported spending about $1.2 million — about a third of which came from the state subsidy program.

The campaign report for Democrat Mike Hatch is due to be filed today.

In 2002, Pawlenty accepted the spending limit and spent $2.5 million on his first campaign for governor.