Tim Penny

Timothy Joe "Tim" Penny (born November 19 1951), is an American politician from Minnesota. Penny was a Democratic-Farmer-Labor member of the United States House of Representatives, 1983–1995, representing Minnesota's 1st congressional district in the 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 102nd and 103rd congresses. In 1993, he announced that he would not seek a seventh term.

Penny was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and was educated at Winona State University, receiving a bachelor's degree in political science in 1974. He was a member of the Minnesota State Senate, 1976–1982.

In 2000, Penny briefly considered running for Senate as a Democrat. Jesse Ventura unsuccessfully tried to recruit him to run on the Reform Party ticket. Ventura later left the Reform Party for the Independence Party, where he recruited Penny to run as his replacement.

Penny's unsuccessful 2002 run for governor of Minnesota as the Independence Party candidate received 16% of the vote, despite polls indicating a dead heat between him, DFL candidate Roger Moe, and Republican candidate Tim Pawlenty less than a month before the election. His running mate for the election was state senator Martha Robertson of Minnetonka, a moderate Republican. In 2008, he endorsed Republican John McCain for the President. [http://www.startribune.com/opinion/27437179.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF]

Penny is currently the President of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation. He is also a Senior Fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. He serves on the Advisory Board [http://www.politicslaw.org/board.html] of the Institute for Law and Politics at the University of Minnesota Law School and is on the Board of Directors for the Energy Literacy Advocates.

Penny lives in Waseca, Minnesota and has four children.

He is the co-author of "Payment Due", "Common Cents: A Retiring Six-Term Congressman Reveals How Congress Really Works — And What We Must Do to Fix It", and "The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics".

References

* [http://www.hhh.umn.edu/people/tpenny/ Faculty bio page] — University of Minnesota
* [http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/campaign2002/governor/penny.shtml Minnesota Public Radio campaign stories, 2002]
* [http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200209/12_khoom_pennyprofile/index.shtml Minnesota Public Radio profile, 2002]
* [http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.asp?ID=10518 Minnesota Legislators Past and Present]

Electoral history

*2002 Race for Governor
**Tim Pawlenty (R), 44%
**Roger Moe (DFL), 36%
**Tim Penny (IPM.), 16%
**Ken Pentel (Grn), 2%