Democratic candidate Mark Dayton polls slightly ahead of his Republican opponent Tom Emmer in a new Rasmussen survey released on Friday. Dayton leads Emmer 44-41 percent, with Independence Party candidate Tom Horner a distant third, with 10 percent support. Conducted on Oct. 20, the poll of 750 likely Minnesota voters has a +/- 4 percent margin of error.
Former Gov. Jesse Ventura told the Pioneer Press Friday that he backs Independence Party candidate Tom Horner for governor. Horner has secured the endorsements of three of the five living governors, including former Republicans Arne Carlson and Al Quie. Gov. Tim Pawlenty is backing Republican Tom Emmer, while former DFL governor Wendell Anderson hasn’t yet announced his support for a candidate. Ventura was the first and only Independence Party candidate to win the governor’s election.
Former Gov. Al Quie, a Republican, told reporters on Thursday that he’s backing Independence Party candidate Tom Horner for governor. Quie is the second former Republican governor to back Horner; the first was former Gov. Arne Carlson. The only other living Republican governor in Minnesota, Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced on Thursday that he’d be campaigning for Republican Tom Emmer in the waning weeks before the election.
As the weekend goes, so goes the week: Democrat Tarryl Clark followed up her St. Cloud Times endorsement of Sunday with a nod today from ECM Publishers, Inc., while gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner gains the same newspaper chain’s endorsement after his weekend endorsement flurry. What may come as a surprise: That company was founded by former Republican Gov. Elmer Anderson.
It was a good weekend for Tom Horner, the Indepedence Party candidate for governor. He picked up endorsements from editorial boards in some of Minnesota’s biggest papers, including the dailies in Duluth and Minneapolis. Less surprising is Tarryl Clark’s endorsement over incumbent Republican Michele Bachmann by the St. Cloud Times: that paper endorsed the last Democrat to take on Bachmann, Elwyn Tinklenberg, in 2008.
With 18 days left until the election, Democrat Mark Dayton appears to hold a slight edge, according to the latest poll on the Minnesota gubernatorial race. In a new KSTP/SurveryUSA poll, Dayton leads Republican Tom Emmer 42-37 percent, with Independence Party candidate Tom Horner trailing far behind the two major-party candidates with only 14 percent support.
At a Fox 9 debate this weekend, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer was the sole voice against anti-bullying legislation. In the last year, school safety advocates say four LGBT teens have taken their own lives in the Anoka-Hennepin School District. The spike in student suicides has sparked a heated debate between LGBT activists who want stronger anti-bullying policies and religious conservatives who want to bar mention of homosexuality in schools.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty told Minnesota Republicans this weekend that voting for Tom Horner, a former Republican running for governor as an Independence Party candidate, would spell disaster for GOP-endorsed Tom Emmer’s chances at the governor’s mansion. The Minnesota GOP has increased its attacks on Horner in recent weeks as Horner picks up the support of moderate Republicans.
Rasmussen released a survey Friday morning that has the Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates essentially tied. Mark Dayton leads Republican Tom Emmer by a slim 40-38 percent margin, with Independence Party candidate Tom Horner pulling in 15 percent.
Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner has been picking off endorsements from former Republican legislators, from past Gov. Arne Carlson and former U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger to a slate of 13 former statehouse legislators who yesterday announced their support for his candidacy. That announcement drew the ire of state GOP Chair Tony Sutton, who responded by stating, “There’s a special place in hell for these quislings.” Two of those former legislators — veterans of the Korean War and World War II — responded to Sutton today in a letter, writing that they found it “demeaning” that their choice to support Horner drew comparisons to Nazi sympathizer and traitor Vidkun Quisling.
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