MINNEAPOLIS — No third term for Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Next stop, the presidential campaign trail?

While announcing Tuesday afternoon that he will not run for re-election next year, the Republican governor pointedly refused to address intense speculation that he’s laying the ground for a White House run in 2012. 

 “My focus is going to be on the next 19 months, finishing my term out strong,” he said at a news conference. “Beyond that, I don’t know what my plans are.

 “I don’t have any plans beyond serving out my term. I’m not ruling anything in or out.” 

With a growing national profile within the Republican Party, Pawlenty has for months been consistently coy about his future, whether it would include a re-election campaign, a presidential run — or both.

 He said he decided not to run again “a week or 10 days ago.” He added: “I’m announcing my decision now so candidates interested in running for this office will have ample time to make their plans and make their case to the people of Minnesota.” 

“We don’t have term limits in Minnesota, but we do have good judgment and common sense,” Pawlenty said. “We are a government of laws and ideas, not personalities. Time marches on, and now it’s time to give someone else a chance.”

 Pawlenty’s rise in the GOP to a point where he’s considered a likely presidential candidate began when he became one of Sen. John McCain’s earliest and most visible supporters during McCain’s presidential campaign. He was on McCain’s short list as his vice presidential running mate, eventually passed over in favor of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

 For months, Pawlenty has been routinely mentioned as a likely presidential candidate in 2012, but has consistently demurred when asked if he plans to make a run.

 The Democratic-Farmer-Labor used the possibility of Pawlenty’s presidential ambitions as a springboard to criticize his governorship. “Governor Pawlenty’s ’no new taxes’ ideology plays well to Republican special interests and the dinner circuits from Iowa to New Hampshire, but it has hurt Minnesota and Minnesotans,” the party said in a statement. “The divisive politics of ideology and calculation have done enough damage.”

 

  For all the recent speculation about what Pawlenty will be doing, Tuesday’s announcement came as a surprise to some Republicans.

 Senate Minority Leader David Senjem said he saw the governor at a banquet Monday night but Pawlenty gave him no hint that he planned a major announcement Tuesday.

 “He didn’t look at all, or sound at all, like a person that was going to be announcing anything today,” Senjem said. “He was very typical, and looked not about like a person that was on the verge of making maybe one of the biggest decisions of his life.” 

 Pawlenty has generally been popular with his constituents, as measured by the Star Tribune Minnesota Poll. His approval ratings have generally been well above 50 percent, hitting a high of 60 percent after his first month in office.

Most recently, in April, the poll found that 48 percent of Minnesotans approved of the job he was doing, while 36 percent disapproved.  As Pawlenty continued to act as a prominent surrogate for the Republican ticket last year, he came to be regarded among the GOP’s next generation of potential national leaders.

 He has said the party must broaden its appeal to both middle-class and working-class Americans, advocating what he calls a “Sam’s Club” brand of Republicanism.  

Pawlenty said Tuesday that the Republican Party “nationally and in Minnesota is going to have to do better ... My party needs new ideas and policies. I think I can contribute to that.”  He said the GOP “has got to be a party that can accommodate Colin Powell and Rush Limbaugh.”

 In the wake of last November’s election, which dealt his party a severe setback across the nation, Pawlenty has kept his profile high by speaking to Republican and conservative groups and regularly appearing on cable television talk shows.

 As recently as April, he delivered the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s weekly radio and Internet address. He sounded twin themes that resonate with the party’s base: lower taxes and less government spending.

  In the just-concluded legislative session, Pawlenty also took a hard line that played well with Republicans far beyond Minnesota, vetoing all DFLers’ proposed tax increases and unilaterally cutting parts of the state’s budget to whittle down its gaping deficit.

 Political analysts have said a run for a third term could have been risky for Pawlenty if he harbors ambitions beyond Minnesota.  Pointing out that he has never cracked 50 percent of the vote during his two previous runs, they said he could have been vulnerable next year. And if he lost, it would have effectively ended his presidential ambitions.

 Pawlenty, however, said Tuesday he “absolutely could have won a third term. I would have won.”  In addition, if the state remained mired in economic hard times during that third term, forcing him to make potentially unpopular decisions, it could have diminished his standing among GOP White House hopefuls.

 And although barely six months have passed since the last presidential election, potential Republican candidates are already gearing up for the 2012 race.

 Iowa, first stop on the presidential campaign trail, already has been visited by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the GOP caucuses in 2008. More politicians have trips planned, including Nevada Sen. John Ensign and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

 Pawlenty, either stumping alongside McCain or acting as his surrogate, campaigned in Iowa several times during the 2008 campaign.  As for his plans for the immediate future, Pawlenty said Tuesday, “I’m going to mow the grass ... I’m going to watch as much of my kids’ sports as possible.”  

Added his wife, Mary: “From our family’s viewpoint, two terms is enough. (We can only plan) one day at a time.”