McCain stops in St. Paul on 'Straight Talk' tour

John McCain brought his struggling presidential campaign to Minnesota on Thursday to raise money and defend his immigration reform plan -- one of the positions that have gotten him in trouble with the Republican base.

"I understand the passion, the emotion and frustration many in the Republican base feel [about the issue]," the U.S. senator from Arizona said during a brief news conference at Holman Field in St. Paul. "Americans are frustrated and angry that 20 years ago, we gave an amnesty. We have to assure the American people we will secure the border."

Citing unnamed polls that he said show most Republicans support immigration reform, McCain said he hoped to revive the bill in the Senate next week.

"I wish we could raise the level of the discussion," he said. "If we do nothing, we will have status quo amnesty."

At McCain's side Thursday was Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who signed on with him last winter as one of the campaign's national co-chairmen. Pawlenty was returning a favor, as McCain had stumped for him last fall during a re-election campaign that left the governor as one of the highest-profile GOP survivors of the Democrats' Election Day sweep.

All of this has produced for Pawlenty a steadily growing national profile and incessant speculation that he could be angling for a vice presidential nod. He has repeatedly swatted away the speculation, saying, "I plan to serve my entire term."

Pawlenty was mum about the topic Thursday. McCain, asked whether he had discussed the second spot on his ticket, said, "it's really too early to discuss that."

He repeated his praise of Pawlenty as "the next generation of Republican leadership."

As it has every time Pawlenty has stumped for McCain, the DFL Party issued an e-mail denunciation Thursday morning, even before McCain's plane landed.

In a prepared statement, Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez blamed Pawlenty for what he described as Minnesota's slowing economy, adding, "Pawlenty is driven more by his national ambitions than by any concern for Minnesotans ... we invite Governor Pawlenty and Senator McCain to step off the 'double-talk express' and join us for a little straight-talk about the future of our state."

Bumps in the road

McCain's brief Minnesota sojourn, sandwiched between other quick fundraising stops in Detroit and New York City, comes as his Straight Talk Express has been hitting some bumps in the road.

An average of several national polls conducted earlier this month puts him in third place among the GOP's presidential aspirants, well behind former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who is not even a declared candidate yet.

The most recent news from Iowa, home of the kickoff precinct caucuses next January, was even bleaker for him: A Mason-Dixon poll published Wednesday shows McCain with the support of 6 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers, behind Giuliani, Thompson and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

McCain, who bypassed Iowa during his 2000 run largely because his opposition to ethanol subsidies amounted to a radioactive position, has said he'll skip the Republican straw poll there in August.

"My poll numbers are fine," he said. "I'm happy with the way the campaign's going. There are ups and downs in every campaign. ... I feel fine. When September comes, when people finish their vacations, we'll out-campaign everybody."

At this point in the 2000 election cycle, he said, he was polling a paltry 3 percent.

McCain, like all the candidates in both parties, is scrambling to ratchet up his fundraising as the second-quarter reporting period nears its end on June 30. At the close of the first quarter of 2007, he had reported raising $14.7 million, behind Giuliani and Romney; $53,050 of that total came from Minnesotans.

That take should have swelled considerably after Thursday's fundraiser, where a half-hour private reception had a ticket price of $2,300 a person (or $5,000 for a PAC) and a general reception carried a $1,000 entry fee.

"I'd like to raise $12 million tonight," McCain cracked, but his traveling staff could not immediately estimate how much they hoped to raise.

The fundraiser was held at the St. Paul home of Lowell and Cay Hellervik, who have contributed $20,500 to a variety of Republican congressional candidates since 2000, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Thursday night was only their second foray into presidential fundraising. In 2001, Lowell Hellervik, chairman and CEO of Personnel Decisions International, a human-resources consulting firm, contributed $5,000 to President Bush's inaugural committee.

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184 • vonste@startribune.com