'Adrian' meets with voters

Shortly before he decided to run for governor of Minnesota in 2002, Tim Pawlenty wasn't sure he wanted to launch a statewide campaign.

In fact, he says, he had decided not to run at all until his wife gave him such a strong pep talk that he later called her his "Adrian," referencing Sylvester Stallone's Rocky movies.

A former corporate attorney and Minnesota state judge, Mary Pawlenty was quietly campaigning in New Hampshire this week, meeting with voters at a house party in Keene on Monday and at a restaurant in Manchester yesterday morning.

She wasn't fundraising, the campaign said, she was just doing grassroots campaigning.

So, is she really Adrian to her husband's Rocky?

Well, to a certain extent, said the mother of two, wearing a brown-patterned dress and a white cardigan.

"Rocky is obviously someone who came from a tough background and really battled his way with a lot of heart and a lot of soul and a lot of guts," she said, "and Adrian was there every step of the way."

Tim Pawlenty appears to be at the bottom of the pack in the lead-up to next week's Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, but Mary Pawlenty said she is confident about his long-term prospects.

"Once they get to meet him, once they get to know who he is, and his record of accomplishment, I am absoutely convinced . . . people will support him," she said.

What does she think of people who say her husband is too boring to be president?

"I find that utterly bewildering," she said. "He's one of the funniest people that I have ever met," she said, chuckling. "He's hilarious. You have to talk to him more."

His taste in slapstick comedy is well known - he still occasionally calls Mary, 50, his "red hot smoking wife," a reference to Will Ferrell's NASCAR-inspired movie, Talladega Nights.

Mary Pawlenty was interviewed yesterday after she toured the $10.5 million YMCA facility in Nashua that opened this spring. She had been invited, organizers said, by Jennifer Horn, a former Republican congressional candidate and Pawlenty supporter who also championed the YMCA's construction.

"There are a lot of great YMCAs out there," Horn said during the tour. "I think this one is special."

Pawlenty, who asked questions throughout the roughly 30-minute tour and was particularly impressed with the family locker rooms, agreed.

"It's the nicest Y I've ever seen," she told about 10 board members, press and campaign staffers gathered around.

Most of the people bustling in the hallways and working out in the weight room took little note of the entourage surrounding Pawlenty, a slim marathoner who said seeing runners on the treadmills made her feel guilty for not hitting the gym more.

Her soft-spoken diligence pleased Mark Cookson, a Nashua alderman who is also on the Nashua YMCA's board of directors. Cookson is a Republican but has not yet endorsed a candidate.

"She was great with my daughter," said Cookson, pointing to the 2-year-old who tottered around with the tour.

Joe Manzoli, director of branch operations for the Greater Nashua YMCA, was one of the tour guides.

"I thought she was great, very down to earth," he said. A Republican, Manzoli said he feels Tim Pawlenty has a long way to go in New Hampshire.

"His name recognition is something that is an uphill battle for him," he said.

The former governor has made it clear that important decisions are made in consultation with his wife, whom he met in his first year at the University of Minnesota law school.

And she has taken her husband's political career seriously.

In 1992, when he ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives, she campaigned with him through the early stages of her pregnancy, taking breaks from literature drops to rest in their car.

But when she became a judge, state law prohibited her from campaigning on his behalf.

"From 1994 until I retired from the bench in early 2007 . . . I was really walled off from the campaigning," she said. It was a bit of a blessing, she said, because with two small daughters she would have been torn in too many directions.

"On the flip side, it is tough to be separated from something that is so important to your spouse, and so I do wish I had been able to be out there more with him," she said.

But now working with a Minnesota mediation firm, she can campaign and intends to do so for the foreseeable future.

What does she think of people who say her husband is neglecting New Hampshire?

"Yet another thing that is bewildering to me," she said. He's been in the state 12 times since January, a campaign spokesman said.

And once the Ames Straw Poll is over Aug. 13, it's likely local voters will see even more of him.

"We love New Hampshire," Mary Pawlenty said.

(Molly A.K. Connors can be reached at 369-3319 or mconnors@cmonitor.com.)