State Sen. Tom Bakk, the DFL Iron Range Tax chair and massive presence at the State Capitol, announced Saturday he was dropping his bid to be Minnesota's next governor.

Bakk, who lacked delegate strength and name recognition in the statewide race, said he needed to focus his efforts on this year's budget deficit in the legislative work.

"I've decided to continue to focus my energies on the most immediate needs of the state – namely balancing the state budget in as fair and sensible a way as possible and putting in place policies that will restart our stalled economy," Bakk said in a news release. "Faced with a decision of spending the next month working to earn delegate support or focusing entirely on the immediate problems Minnesota is facing, I've chosen the latter and will focus on my work as chair of the Senate Tax Committee."

Bakk's said he hopes those left in race will pick up his campaign theme of "jobs, jobs, jobs."

"As a carpenter who ran out of unemployment in the 1980s, I understand the stress today's unemployed Minnesotans face," he said.

He said he has "tentative" plans to run for re-election to the Senate.

His withdrawal leaves several dynamic questions in the crowded DFL race:

  • Could he become another DFLers' lieutenant governor pick?
  • If he runs for re-election, will he vie to be the Senate Majority Leader?
  • Since he cannot use his gubernatorial funds for a re-election bid, where will he donate his campaign cash?
  • Will he endorse (and work for) another DFL candidate?
  • Does his withdrawal strengthen fellow Iron Ranger Tom Rukavina's bid for governor? Rukavina had greater delegate strength than Bakk, according to reports.
  • Will there be more drop outs before the DFL late April convention?
  • And if DFL candidate Mark Dayton and Bakk were having lunch together on Friday, what were they talking about?

UPDATE:

In an interview, Bakk said when he was plotting his gubernatorial strategy, he had thought the DFL race would be down to two to three candidates and, "I would be one of them."

Instead, he faced a host of candidates and a huge number of uncommitted delegates. Breaking through to those delegates would have taken time he just didn't have to spare, given his legislative work.

"For me, it's actually a pretty clear decision at this point," he said.

Bakk said he he wouldn't endorse anyone left in the race until after the state party convention and he said being another candidate's second in command was, "not something I'm interested in."

He said while he would use some of his left over campaign cash to help the DFL Senate caucus and some of it to help individual candidates, he was "not going to pursue the majority leader's job."

That said, if he does return to the senate -- he and his wife haven't talked in detail about whether he will run for re-election -- the top job would be, "certainly something I would be willing to do (but) not something I'm going to campaign for."

And about that lunch meeting with Dayton? Bakk said he initiated it because he wanted to hear what Dayton had been hearing during his statewide tour.

"Don't read much into it," he said.