Dayton, Pawlenty tensions resurface (Politico)

Mark Dayton and Tim Pawlenty have been at it for years.

Dayton, the current Minnesota governor, is laying much of the blame for the $5 billion deficit and state government shutdown on Pawlenty ? who?s making his fiscal record a key piece of his presidential campaign.

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Dayton?s been eager to keep up the fight since narrowly winning a down-to-the-recount race last year by running against Pawlenty?s record. Shortly after his election victory, with the deficit looming larger, Dayton delivered an impassioned speech thanking Republican Gov. Al Quie for holding four special sessions in his last year in office in 1982 and balancing the budget for his Democratic Farmer-Labor successor Gov. Rudy Perpich.

?He put resources into job creation,? Dayton said at Minnesota?s Blue State Ball in January, referring to Perpich. ?He had that opportunity because he had a balanced budget. That?s the luxury I don?t have because somebody else is too busy running for president than to face the problems here in Minnesota.?

And while Pawlenty has been reluctant to attack his primary opponents in the presidential race, he?s eagerly fired back at Dayton?s suggestions that he?s to blame, most recently at a late-night press briefing a few hours before the shutdown deadline.

?If the state government would simply live within the revenues it has available, it wouldn?t have any deficits at all,? Pawlenty told reporters, returning home from a campaign swing in Florida.

They?ve served alongside each other for a decade ? Pawlenty was the majority leader of the Minnesota House when Dayton was elected U.S. senator in 2000, and then from 2003 through 2006, they served alongside each other as statewide officials during Pawlenty?s first term as governor, until Dayton opted against a re-election run. Then Dayton succeeded him as governor.

They?re very different men ? Pawlenty?s the blue collar kid from South St. Paul while Dayton?s the heir to a department store fortune, but they weren?t always so much at odds.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories0711_58251_html/42090248/SIG=11mu8ouv1/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58251.html

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