E-mails provide glimpse of Pawlenty's response to crisis
(AP) - The flurry of e-mail began at 6:18 p.m., a quick dispatch from Gov. Tim Pawlenty's chief spokesman to other top office staff conveying a radio report of a fallen interstate bridge.
"May be cars in Mississippi River. Both directions on 35W. Helicopter says it's a devastating scene," Brian McClung wrote in his e-mail 13 minutes after the I-35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River Aug. 1.
From there, Pawlenty's staff grasped for details. They put out urgent requests to the state Department of Transportation for information and they fed off of news reports for regular updates spread around to staff - at 7:18 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 7:45 p.m. and on into the night.
Dozens of e-mails from the night of the collapse and the days following, obtained by The Associated Press, capture a businesslike response to the biggest disaster of Pawlenty's tenure.
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"May be cars in Mississippi River. Both directions on 35W. Helicopter says it's a devastating scene."
By 6:51 p.m. Wednesday, Pawlenty's scheduler had cleared his calendar for the next day. By 4:22 a.m. Thursday, a press aide documented how quickly it would fill back up, confirming him for a solid block of national television interviews beginning with NBC's "Today" show at 6:30 a.m.
"The bridge will consume us (and appropriately so) for the next few days," Chief of Staff Matt Kramer wrote Thursday morning as he tried to figure out if Pawlenty would have time to meet with first lady Laura Bush, whose visit to Minnesota was announced prior to the bridge incident.
There were other considerations, too.
Staff kept apprised of the response from Pawlenty's political rivals, taking note of a Democratic senator's criticism of the governor for vetoing a transportation bill.
They closely tracked the hurried push in Washington for a $250 million in emergency reconstruction aid. And they wasted little time getting to work on planning for a replacement bridge.
Special adviser Paul Anderson wondered whether the GOP governor and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak should make time for national Republican leaders gathered in Minneapolis roughly a year before the Twin Cities hosts the Republican National Convention.
Anderson termed it an opportunity for Pawlenty to "assure them we are going to continue to do what we can for the convention. Realize it's not critical, but there could be an important message for him to deliver - maybe Rybak too?"
Kramer responded, "Yes, I've been talking with Jeff Larson and they (the visiting group) need some reassurance/face time that things are okay." (Larson is chief operating officer of the convention host committee.)
By Friday, Kramer was seeking answers on what it would take to get a new bridge up -- and fast.
He pressed the Pawlenty office lawyer and a transportation department contact for a "top to bottom" understanding of what it takes to move a bridge through the permitting and authorization process.
"Ideally the 'Your guide to how a bridge gets built' book. And what I want to do with this information is start looking for every place where an executive order or a suspension of a particular activity might accelerate construction," Kramer wrote.
Later that same day, Kramer had roughed out a job description for a new adviser to the governor: the "Governor's I-35W Bridge Representative."
"It has one function and only one function," he wrote.
The official would be the governor's point person on all aspects of demolition and replacement, giving Pawlenty daily briefings and handling all proposed legislative initiatives involving the bridge.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
