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| Affiliation | MN Independence |
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| Name | Timothy J. "Tim" Penny |
| Address |
Albert Lea, Minnesota , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
November 19, 1951 |
| Died |
Still Living
(73 years) |
| Contributor | The Oncoming Storm |
| Last Modifed | Barack O-blame-a
Nov 25, 2012 12:30am |
| Tags |
Lutheran - Straight -
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| Info | During his time in Congress, Tim Penny often reached out to the opposition, touting deficit reduction when Democrats rarely talked about it. While his fiscal conservatism and moderate views sometimes angered Democratic leaders, by the early 1990s, his deficit-cutting message was getting through.
He helped President Bill Clinton push through a deficit reduction package in 1993 _ then announced the next day that he would not seek a seventh term. He has since co-authored three books critical of the political system and now runs a policy program with former Republican U.S. Rep. Vin Weber at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
He also served on President Bush's bipartisan advisory panel on reforming Social Security. Since leaving office, Penny has worked for public relations firms and think tanks, including the libertarian Cato Institute and most recently, as co-director of the Humphrey Institute.
In 2000, Penny briefly considered running for Senate as a Democrat. Ventura unsuccessfully tried to recruit him to run on the Reform Party ticket. Ventura later left the Reform Party for the Independence Party.
When Ventura decided not to run for another term, he again urged Penny to run _ this time as an Independence Party member. Penny agreed. He faced off against two of the state's most powerful lawmakers in Democrat Roger Moe, the 20-year leader of the Senate, and Republican Tim Pawlenty, the second-in-command of the House.
The Green Party candidate was Ken Pentel.
He ran neck-and-neck with Pawlenty and Moe, but finished a distant third after partisans returned to their roots following the death of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone. Pentel finished with less than 5% of the vote.
Campaigns
Tim Penny was elected as a Democrat to the Minnesota Senate in his Republican-leaning southern Minnesota district in 1976.
In 1982, he won a hotly contested race for the 1st Congressional District, where he ended up serving until 1994. The Independence Party whose banner Penny is running under this time around shuns political action committee money. Their top candidate has decided to go along with the party's wishes, which coupled with the fledgling party's lack of money, could put him at a disadvantage. But so far, he has been able to keep up with his opponents.
He's billing himself as being in the "sensible center" _ an amorphous territory that Pawlenty and Moe are trying to force him to define.
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