Warn GOP Candidates They Can’t Run From Their True Records While Campaigning In Iowa

DES MOINES –Today the Iowa Democratic Party and Minnesota State Rep. Jim Davnie held a press conference call to discuss former governor Tim Pawlenty’s failed record on education.  The call comes in advance of Pawlenty’s address to college Republicans today in Des Moines. Under Pawlenty’s tenure, tuition increased 60 percent for Minnesota students, students left Minnesota colleges with record amounts of debt and the quality of higher education in Minnesota suffered.

Today’s call was also a warning to GOP hopefuls – you can run, but you can’t hide from your failed records and false rhetoric.

You can listen to full audio of the call here: http://iowademocrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Rep.-Davnie-on-Pawlenty.mp3

Norm Sterzenbach, Executive Director, Iowa Democratic Party

“We are going to aggressively point out the true record of the Republican candidates seeking the presidential nomination as they come to Iowa.”

State Representative Jim Davnie

“In the eight years that Governor Pawlenty was governor of the state, we saw the state stepping back from higher education – when he started about 13 percent of the state’s general fund spending was higher education, now it’s about 8 percent… Governor Pawlenty made it harder for Minnesotans to come into college out of high school, return to college when they want to get retrained and get back into the workforce — it’s harder, it’s more expensive and it takes longer. That’s a failed record as governor on higher education and I don’t think it makes him a strong candidate for President…

“If young voters look at Governor Pawlenty’s record – the steep tuition spikes we’ve seen here, the reduction in state support for higher education opportunities, the high debt load that students leave college with here and the low, almost nonexistent job development and job growth in Minnesota during his tenure all put together a picture that isn’t inviting to a young voter who wants to get an education, get engaged, get into the world and get a good job.  That’s not Tim Pawlenty’s Minnesota unfortunately.”

Rep. Jim Davnie has been a public school teacher since 1989 and serves on the Education Finance, Education Reform and Taxes committees in the Minnesota House of Representatives.