Pawlenty hedges on signing Senate election certificate
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/04/13/pawlenty_elxcert/St. Paul, Minn. — Gov. Tim Pawlenty won't commit to a timetable for signing an election certificate in the state's drawn-out U.S. Senate race.
The Minnesota Supreme Court has already said an election certificate could not be issued until Republican Norm Coleman's election lawsuit plays out in state court.
On MPR's Midday program today, the Republican governor said a number of hurdles stand in the way of his signing off on the election certificate.
When asked if he would issue and sign a certificate if no court rulings prohibited one, Pawlenty said he didn't know. He said the three-judge panel still has to name the official winner, and the loser's appeals must play out in court.
"Beyond that, I also would want to look at what the courts did with the case in terms of leaving issues for potential appeal, the strength of those issues, how directly and effectively they addressed them," said Pawlenty. "I'm not saying that I'm going to, or not going to, issue the certificate at that point. I just want to make sure I have all the facts in front of me before I made a decision like that."
Democrat Al Franken holds a 312-vote lead over Coleman with a couple of claims in the case still pending.