Dayton, Emmer in Minn. gov cliffhanger

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, November 3, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s the morning after Election Day in Minnesota, and once again the biggest statewide race doesn’t have a declared winner.

Democrat Mark Dayton holds a small lead over Republican Tom Emmer in the governor’s race. With election returns in early Wednesday from all but 19 precincts statewide, Dayton is up by 9,257 votes out of more than 1.8 million cast.

That’s a considerably bigger lead than the 475 votes that separated Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken in their Senate race the morning after Election Day 2008. But it’s close enough that neither Dayton nor Emmer have claimed victory yet, and on Wednesday morning state GOP leaders are holding a morning news conference with one of the lawyers from Coleman’s recount legal team.

The Independence Party’s Tom Horner conceded defeat Tuesday night after attracting about 12 percent of the vote.