Here’s the press release from Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s office, announcing the appointment of Tom Sorel as the new state transportation commissioner:

Saint Paul – Governor Tim Pawlenty today appointed Tom Sorel as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT).

Mr. Sorel currently heads the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) division office in Minnesota. The FHWA is a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) and provides financial and technical support to state and local governments for constructing and preserving America’s highway system. He starts at Mn/DOT on Monday, April 28.

Mr. Sorel, 51, has held various positions with the FHWA since 1978 including Major Project Team Leader at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. and Director of Planning and Program Development and Chief of Technology Services in Albany, New York. During the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Mr. Sorel was the USDOT liaison for federal transportation issues and led the effort to build the infrastructure for the event.

“With 30 years of transportation experience and a civil engineering background, Tom Sorel is the right person to lead Mn/DOT,” Governor Pawlenty said. “Minnesota has invested more in roads over the last five years than ever before. Tom Sorel will provide the leadership as we continue to build a modern and efficient transportation system for Minnesota.”

Mr. Sorel received his degree in civil engineering from State University of New York in Buffalo and his Master of Business Administration from Thomas College in Maine. He has also received a Certificate of Conflict Management from Cornell School of Industrial/Labor Relations and an Associate Certificate Project Management from George Washington University.

In addition to many FHWA performance awards, he received the Presidential Honor for leading the federal transportation response, recovery, and rebuilding efforts in Minnesota in the aftermath of the I-35W Bridge Collapse. He currently serves on the boards of the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota, Minnesota Guide Star, and the Transportation Engineering and Road Research Alliance.

Mn/DOT, with approximately 4,400 employees, develops and implements policies, plans and programs for highways, railroads, commercial waterways, aeronautics, public transit and motor carriers in the state. Minnesota has the fifth largest highway system in the United States.

Earlier this month, Mn/DOT announced the state’s 2008 construction season that included135 new highway and bridge projects valued at $441 million. Highlights include the completion of major projects originally advanced by the Pawlenty bonding program in 2003. These include the Highway 10 realignment in Detroit Lakes, the Highway 34 reconstruction in Park Rapids, the I-694/I-35E Unweave the Weave reconstruction north of St. Paul and the new Highway 212 project in the southwest Metro. There are also some 20 additional carryover projects begun in previous years like the I-35W/Highway 62 Crosstown reconstruction in the Twin Cities.

Colleague Jill Burcum was watching Leno last night when Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s name was invoked in a head-scratching moment. Here’s her account:

Minnesota’s governor was a surprise - and wrong - answer Thursday night on Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars, a running skit on Jay Leno’s late night talk show that features regular people duking it out in a gameshow format testing their trivia knowledge.

The gag is that these folks are chosen because they’re really uninformed. On Thursday night, for example, none of the three contestants could identify which Italian city is famous for its canals.

But Contestant #1, Jessica, knew her Minnesota governors. Sort of.

Shown a picture of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Jessica thought hard and came up with this: Puhlenty?

To which Leno responded: Plenty?

No, no, said Jessica. Paw-lenty, accent heavy on the Paw.

Leno didn’t make the connection between McCain and his potential Minnesota running mate.

Jessica didn’t offer up anything else as to why she knew Pawlenty’s name or thought he was McCain. But she went on to win the show, anyway, scoring an impressive comeback by linking Einstein to the theory of relativity.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposal Monday to spend $225 million to replace 600 to 700 bridges underscored the fact that more than five months after the I-35W bridge collapsed, the governor and DFL leaders remain at odds over what to do.

Pawlenty proposed devoting nearly a quarter of his $1 billion bonding proposal to bridge repair. Combined with other road and transit projects, the $416 million for transportation is by far the largest part of his proposal — with higher education spending ranking second with $258 million.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty

The governor declared his plan a “historic committment to bridges in Minnesota.”

But DFL leaders criticized it as being insufficient. They said that there’s an urgent need for $1.8 billion in bridge repair — and that a gas tax increase is necessary to raise the money that’s really needed.

You can read more about the governor’s proposal in Patricia Lopez’s story here.

What do you think of the governor’s plan — both what’s on his list and what he left off? Does it meet the state’s needs, or are DFLers overstating the case?

Here’s the governor’s press release, which includes extensive highlights of his proposal.

And here’s the DFL Party response, including a jab at Pawlenty for taking “a day off the campaign trail” for Sen. John McCain to offer up a Band-Aid.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Today’s Star Tribune Minnesota Poll — here it is — showing Sen. Amy Klobuchar with a 61 percent job approval rating is a clear sign that she hasn’t made any missteps in her first 10 months in Washington. The job approval rating is about the same as her vote total when she was elected last year — with 58 percent of the vote.

But there’s no question that Klobuchar’s high standing is unusual.

Consider these Minnesota Poll job approval ratings for the last four U.S. senators from Minnesota when they were approximately a year into their first term. Only one other senator — Republican Norm Coleman — had a rating higher than 50 percent:

Norm Coleman, R: 12 months in (Jan. 2004) — 54 percent
Mark Dayton, D: 13 months in (Feb. 2002) — 46 percent
Rod Grams, R: 9 months in (Sept. 1995) — 37 percent
Paul Wellstone, D: 12 months in (Jan. 1992) 50 percent

The Grams findings were striking because they showed that 36 percent of Minnesotans had no opinion regarding his job performance. Only 27 percent disapproved.

Wellstone’s 50 percent rating represented a quick rehabilitation from his first job approval just three months into his term — 35 percent. His vocal protests against the Gulf War, including at the Vietnam War Memorial — drew lots of criticism.

(No, I didn’t forget Sen. Dean Barkley. Because he served only a matter of weeks to fill out Wellstone’s term, we don’t have any job approval polls on him.)

Here’s another way to look at Klobuchar’s numbers — in comparison to other members of her freshman senate class. Here are poll numbers I was able to find:

Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.: 54 percent in a Survey USA poll in September.
Robert Casey, Jr., D-Pa.: 49 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll in August.
Jim Webb, D-Va.: 46 percent in a Survey USA poll in September.
Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio: 45 percent in a Survey USA poll in September.
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.: 41 percent in a Brown University Taubman Center poll in September. That poll asked people to rate his job performance, and 7 percent said excellent and 34 percent said good.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty

If anyone knows of job approval polls for the other freshmen — Democrats Ben Cardin, Md., and Jon Tester, Mont.; Republican Bob Corker, Tenn.; and independent Bernie Sanders, Vt., — please add them below.

What do you make of Klobuchar’s high ride in the poll? I also wonder whether Klobuchar’s 61 percent and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 59 percent job approval make them the highest-regarded Senator/Governor duo from opposite parties in the country.

Rep. John Kline

We’ll be recording a new Pig’s Eye Podcast this morning. We hope to have it posted by about 10 a.m. Once we get in front of the microphones, anything is possible, but here’s what we expect to be talking about.

A fugitive on the lam takes the time — bless his felonious little heart — to post a comment on Politically Connected about our podcast.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s enviable 59% job approval rating.

More stirrings in the Minnesota congressional races, including an intriguing Democrat stepping forward to run against John Kline.

The U.S. Senate race, where Al Franken edged out Sen. Norm Coleman in the third-quarter money race.

By the way, if you have a question for the Pig’s Eye Podcast crew — Doug Tice, Lori Sturdevant and me — or want us to address a certain topic, leave a post here, or send an e-mail to politicallyconnected@startribune.com.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is like that character you see in some war movies who strides confidently through the battlefield — upright, unfazed and seemingly protected by an invisible shield from the shells exploding all around him. That’s the image that comes to mind when looking at the new Minnesota Poll results we have on Politically Connected today.

The poll found that 59 percent of Minnesotans approve of the job he’s doing. In addition to the main story here, we also have graphics here and here.

This rating proves once again that Pawlenty is a breed apart. It’s a rock solid rating for any incumbent. And it comes at a time when there have been troubles in his administration and he has seemed hesitant. His health commissioner resigned after withholding data about cancer deaths on the Iron Range, and his running mate/transportation commissioner has been embattled since the I-35W bridge collapsed. Pawlenty himself came under fire for giving conflicting signals on a gas tax hike to pay for bridge repairs.

But what comes through in the poll results is a governor with broad, deep and unwavering support. He has majority approval among every group the poll measured, except for non-whites (47% approval) and Democrats (38%).

Consider these job approval ratings among:
Men: 60 percent
Women: 57 percent
18-39 year olds: 63 percent
40-59 year olds: 59 percent
60 and over: 53 percent
7 county metro: 59 percent
Rest of state: 58 percent

It’s not surprising, then, that Pawlenty has received national attention. By the way, he’ll be bringing some of his political glamour to the East Coast in the coming days. There’s a blog post from New Hamspire here.

How do you explain Pawlenty’s enduring popularity? When Republicans were swept away in 2006 by the Democratic tsunami, why is it that Pawlenty was able to hold his ground?