Discover Politics

In an unexpected move Saturday afternoon, Tim Pawlenty made a surprise endorsement in NY-23’s special Congressional election. The surprise: he’s not endorsing the Republican.

Bucking the local party, Pawlenty followed Dick Armey, Fred Thompson, (and perhaps most notably), Sarah Palin, in endorsing Doug Hoffman, a candidate for the Conservative Party of New York. In a letter to Redstate.com, Pawlenty outlined his reasons for supporting Hoffman, giving a scathing critique of the Republican, Dierdre Scozzafava:

“We cannot send more politicians to Washington who wear the Republican jersey on the campaign trail, but then vote like Democrats in Congress on issues like card check and taxes.”

This is an interesting move by Pawlenty, who himself has been criticized by far-right activists for straying from the Buckley path. Cries of “Rino” (Republican in Name Only) have been known to hound Pawlenty in regards to certain decisions. When he levied a fee on cigarette purchases and supported public stadium funding, Pawlenty fell under similar fire from activists. In fact, one insider even likened Hoffman’s candidacy to Sue Jeffer’s primary battle against Pawlenty in 2006. In that contest, Jeffer’s supporters often used similar reasoning to rebuff Pawlenty’s incumbent candidacy.

The timing and nature of Pawlenty’s decision leads some to speculate that he has a bigger race in mind. Pawlenty may be positioning himself among the far-right in anticipation for a Presidential primary in 2012. After all, one of his potential main competitors in that race, Sarah Palin, announced her support for Hoffman last week. It is worth note that in his support for Hoffman, Pawlenty references tax restraint – perhaps his strongest trait among hard-core conservatives.