Pawlenty courts Republicans in Tampa

On the first official day of his presidential campaign, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty curried potential supporters in Tampa and marked off Florida as ground zero in the coming debate over Social Security and Medicare.

"I'm going to Florida to tell both young people and seniors the truth, that our entitlement programs are on an unsustainable path and that inaction is no longer an option," Pawlenty said in his announcement Monday in Iowa.

In Tampa on Monday evening, Pawlenty visited a South Tampa restaurant for a dinner sponsored by surgeon A.K. Desai and attended a reception at the Beach Park home of supporter Martin Garcia.

Rather than a traditional announcement in his home state, Pawlenty went where some of the early, crucial votes in the GOP primary will be — first Iowa, then Florida.

"We flew right from Des Moines and our announcement today to this event, so this is the first event I've had in my campaign," he told a group of about 70 Republican Party leaders and fundraisers at Garcia's home.

The events were aimed primarily at letting local Republican Party leaders and GOP fundraisers hear him talk and evaluate him as a candidate, said Phil Handy of Winter Haven, Pawlenty's state chairman.

Pawlenty will raise the entitlement issue in a Facebook town hall today, while attending similar events in South Florida.

In his announcement, Pawlenty outlined several potential changes in Medicare and Social Security, but stopped short of the most drastic ones, including Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal to change Medicare into a voucher-supported private insurance program.

"It's time to tell the American people the truth. They can handle it," he said in Tampa.

Asked by an attendee about immigration, Pawlenty favored work visas and tough border enforcement but not an Arizona-style law on illegal immigrants.

Pawlenty must overtake front-runner Mitt Romney and apparently hopes to do so with a strong showing in Iowa and in Florida, where he has successfully recruited some former Romney backers.

But Handy said the campaign has no plans yet for competing in what could be a critical early test in Florida, the state Republican Party's Presidency 5 straw poll.

Many attendees at the Tampa events were still undecided.

Prominent fundraiser Nancy Watkins, a 2008 Romney backer, said she's "keeping a very open mind."

"I was very impressed with Jon Huntsman," who held a meet-and-greet in St. Petersburg two weeks ago, "and I still hold Mitt Romney in very high regard," she said.

wmarch@tampatrib.com

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