Next week, Tim Pawlenty will take yet another out-of-state trip to raise money for the GOP and its candidates. His last trip took him to New Jersey, where he raised money for a guy with a less-than-stellar ethics record. But the candidate Tim Pawlenty has chosen to help raise big money for really takes the cake -- he's a sexist:

McDonnell argued, among other things, that working women and feminists are "detrimental" to the family; that government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators;" and that the court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples was "illogical," because at the time non-marital sex was itself a crime.

And he attacks the phenomenon of women working outside the home, writing that the proliferation in the day care industry was caused by the desire of some women "to break their perceived stereotypical role bonds and seek workplace equality and individual self-actualization." Asks McDonnell: "Must government subsidize the choices of a generation with an increased appetite for the materialistic components of the American Dream?"

Why is the governor of a state where 69% of women work raising money for Bob McDonnell -- a guy who says these women are a detriment to the family and society?

Minnesota Progressive Project's Joe Bodell puts it this way:

McDonnell is free to be as big an insane cultural reactionary as he wants, similarities to the Taliban aside. But is this the kind of insanity with which Tim Pawlenty is trying to associate himself?

If Tim Pawlenty even cares anymore what his home state thinks of reactionary ideologues with attitudes like McDonnell's, he would immediately cancel this appearance.

And that's exactly what we're asking Tim Pawlenty to do.

Yesterday, ABM's Executive Director Denise Cardinal sent out the email below asking Minnesotans to remind Tim Pawlenty that we still expect him to represent the values that Minnesotans hold dear -- and that means not supporting sexist candidates.

Check it out:

Friend--

Minnesota has more working women than almost any other state in the nation. Governor Pawlenty's wife, Mary, is one of them. She met him in law school, served as a judge for years, and now helps run a successful foundation.

But her husband is scheduled to raise money next Wednesday with Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell -- and Bob McDonnell's blueprint for governing states that women who work are "detrimental to the family."

Read what Bob McDonnell wrote about working women and  ask Tim Pawlenty to ditch the pig:

[E]xisting federal child-care programs already cost more than $6.9 billion in 1988. Further expenditures would be used to subsidize a dynamic new trend of working women and feminists that is ultimately detrimental to the family by entrenching a status-quo of non-parental primary nurture of children.1

Minnesotans are proud to have 69 percent of its women in the workforce2 and we certainly don't think working mothers and women are "detrimental" to any family.

http://allianceminnesota.org/DitchThePig

Tim Pawlenty may think he's already running for President, but we still expect him to represent the values that we Minnesotans hold dear. That means no support for sexist candidates.

Sign the petition and we'll make sure Tim Pawlenty knows that Minnesotans are proud to have a workforce that supports families of all kinds, even ones that include women and "feminists."

Thanks for speaking out,

Denise Cardinal
Executive Director
Alliance for a Better Minnesota

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/McDonnell_thesis_082909.pdf
2. http://www.deed.state.mn.us/lmi/publications/trends/0806/women.htm