One month after making a big speech in Iowa, likely 2012 presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty is slated to appear in that other critical primary state.
The Republican Minnesota Governor is headed to New Hampshire -- the first official primary state on the election calendar -- for a mid-December speech for the Republican Senate Majority Committee PAC.
The move drips with significance -- and overt calculation. Pawlenty is introducing himself to critical primary voters. Moreover, he is doing so in an effort to help build up the party apparatus and win seats for the GOP in the mid-term elections (a move that will enamor Republican insiders).
And just to make sure that all the right buttons are pushed, the people in the Pawlenty camp sent the information to a conservative media stalwart: the New Hampshire Union Leader. The paper reports that Pawlenty's visit to the Granite State is "being arranged by strategist Michael Dennehy, who heads the Dennehy Group in Concord and was a senior adviser to GOP presidential candidate John McCain in 2008 and 2000."
Last week, Pawlenty went to Iowa, site of the nation's first presidential caucuses, to speak at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Pawlenty is also scheduled to appear before The Forum Club in Florida -- another critical primary state.