DFL turned Independence Party state Bob Lessard, a former longtime state Senator, is backing DFLer Mark Dayton in the governor's race.

Lessard, known as a force for outdoors issues, said Dayton's support for those issues swayed him.

"In this race, Mark Dayton is on the right side of those issues—he supported the Legacy Amendment from Day One. I support Mark because he supports sportsmen and sportswomen," he said in a release from the Dayton campaign. "Rep. Emmer (the Republican candidate for governor) opposed the Legacy Amendment, which I can understand. However, after the amendment was overwhelmingly passed, Emmer authored legislation to repeal what the voters had just voted for."

The release noted that Lessard had "previously endorsed Governor Pawlenty and Senator Coleman, and chaired the Sportsmen for Bush campaign."

All three gubernatorial candidates have been working hard for the outdoors-folks' votes.

During the campaign, Emmer ripped up a copy of his Legacy amendment repeal and said the "discussion is over." Emmer, who has featured photos of himself and his family decked out in in his campaign literature, has said outdoors enthusiasts are his "natural constituency."

Former state Sen. Bob Lessard is helping Dayton fish for votes

Just last week, Independence Party's Tom Horner released an eight-point "conservation plan" and features a video of outdoors personality Ron Schara on his Web site talking about the need for non-partisanship in outdoors issues.