Pawlenty PAC pays for primo placement

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s Freedom First political action committee, which unveiled a new website this week, has paid Google to make sure the PAC is the first thing anyone sees when they plug the governor’s name into the search engine.

A sponsored link for the Freedom First PAC comes out on top — ahead of even Pawlenty’s official state of Minnesota governor’s page — when a user Googles “Tim Pawlenty,” “Pawlenty,” “Pawlenty Minnesota” and even “TPaw.”

“Official Tim Pawlenty PAC,” the link reads. “Learn more about Tim Pawlenty’s new effort to put Freedom First.”

Pawlenty is seeking the Republican endorsement to run for president in 2012, though he has not made any official announcement to that effect. Early this week, the PAC unveiled its new website, which was designed by Terra Eclipse, a California-based firm that also engineered presidential candidate Ron Paul’s 2008 web presence.