Key adviser to Pawlenty steps down

[katinmn]

http://www.startribune.com/dynamic/mobile_story.php?story=5760135


December 3, 2005

Key adviser to Pawlenty steps down

After a year on the job, Tom Mason, a top adviser to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, announced Friday that he is leaving his government job and will return to private political consulting.

Mason, 52, has been the governor's senior adviser for communications.

"Tom won't be part of my staff, but he will continue to be among my closest advisers," Pawlenty said in a statement

Mason was charged with coordinating Pawlenty's message, and his influence was widely believed to be responsible for some of Pawlenty's more hardline approaches to legislative opponents in the last session. His departure comes just before the start of a reelection battle in 2006.

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Tom's kind of a gadfly and doesn't stay anywhere very long. He made all the rounds during the Boschwitz years. But bailing out now just as things will gear up for the 06 elections is quite telling. :toast: