Post-Election, Pawlenty Preaches to the Choir

The mood at this year's Minnesota Family Council's Legislative Insights Luncheon was somber. As the lunch of cold ham-and-cheese sandwiches, pasta and cake began, MFC CEO John Helmberger asked if any legislators who were present would stand and be recognized.

Nobody stood up.

As the break for lunch ended and the presentation began, Helmberger called the recent election disappointing and warned that "the new majority is much less pro-family." MFC is a socially conservative advocacy group that opposes comprehensive sexual education, abortion, homosexuality, and embryotic stem cell research. The Legislative Insights Luncheon puts forward the legislative and public policy strategy for socially conservative issues.

Speakers at the Monday-afternoon event at the Embassy Suites in St. Paul recounted a sense of loss twinged with hope for the future.

Among them was Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who compared the current political climate to a trip to Duluth on the coldest day of the year last weekend. Pawlenty said, "The last election was just as chilly for family issues." He also told the audience that the current climate is not hopeless, because there is always hope.

MFC President Tom Prichard assessed the current state of religious-right policy. "It’s been an interesting legislative session thus far. Reflecting on the election, obviously there has been a big shift in a partisan perspective." The shift had nothing to do with social conservative policy, Prichard asserted: "I don’t think it was a referendum on pro-family and pro-life issues. I don’t think voters were saying that they no longer view those values as important. In fact, I think they view them as just as valuable as they did before the election."

But despite the political opposition to social conservative policy, Helmberger says MFC will continue to fight the war in order to save the children: "There is a civil war between two worldviews, a worldview that is based on a biblical understanding, on what is truth, and what is right, and a secular worldview which is vying for dominance in our culture...one of them, ladies and gentleman, will prevail...and the winner gets our children."

Gov. Pawlenty on Social Issues

Pawlenty's speech focused heavily on taxes, but he also included many of the wedge issues that constitute the majority of MFC's public policy list.

On Same-Sex Marriage:

The issue of supporting or defining traditional marriage remains very important nationally and in Minnesota. I’m disappointed that we’re not one of the 26 or 27 or so states that have been able to get this forward as a constitutional amendment. I am pleased that when I was in the legislature, I co-authored the statute that defines marriage in Minnesota as between a man and a woman. But as you know, of course, the courts can come in and declare that statute unconstitutional. If you want ultimately to protect marriage, we have to have a constitutional amendment and it should be, in my view, one that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. So that we don’t have that doubt, and some other state courts have taken a run at those statutes and some have been overturned.

He added that an amendment would not happen soon in Minnesota: "The truth of the matter is the votes aren’t there to do it."

On curtailing reproductive rights:

The right to life is paramount. We’ve made some good progress over the last 3 years on protecting life in Minnesota. We have done more in terms of pro-life legislation than any time in the recent history of the state. The legislature passed and signed into law women’s right to know bill…positive alternatives…and the fetal pain bill. As we look to the future, the pro-life segment of the legislature has eroded and these last election results have pushed it back. Now to use a hockey analogy, we may be playing goalie on some of these issues. But, rest assured we will stand firm on these issues.

At the end of the luncheon was a question and answer session.

Question: "You’ve been a strong supporter of marriage and I appreciate that very much. There is expected to be efforts to promote marriage-like relationships for same-sex couples, civil unions and domestic partner benefits, in the legislature. Would you be prepared to veto such proposals if they were to reach your desk?"

Gov. Pawlenty: "Yes. We’ve had experience with these issues over the years and as you may recall a few years ago we had a state employee contract where they tried a proposal to extend domestic partner benefits into the collective bargaining and we told them to take that out or we wouldn’t sign it, and they eventually took it out. And as to civil unions and civil contracts, it's just people trying to get marriage benefits by another name. If you accept what people mean by that. More often than not, what they are describing is the same thing as marriage except they are putting a different label on it. That’s not acceptable. It's sophistry or total wordsmithing, and by the way, regardless of their sexual orientation, if they want to engage in a private contract, that’s available to them under current law."

Question: "Do you think you would have won without the faith-based vote?"

Gov. Pawlenty: "No." [laughter and applause]