AFSCME endorses Dayton for governor

Article by: RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER , Star Tribune
Updated: October 24, 2009 - 9:54 PM

AFSCME endorses Dayton for governor.

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One of Minnesota's largest state employee unions has endorsed former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton's 2010 bid for governor, the union announced late Saturday.

Dayton, a DFLer, won the AFSCME Minnesota Council 5 nod over nine other DFL contenders as well as Republican candidate Patricia Anderson screened for the endorsement Saturday.

The AFSCME endorsement, which brings with it the campaigning might of the union, is Dayton's first major endorsement.

"Mark Dayton has won statewide elections -- twice," Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, said in a news release. "Minnesotans know and like Mark."

Seide had said earlier that union members would be very interested in candidates' electability as well as their history and stands on issues important to union members. Democrats have not won the governor's office in Minnesota for more than two decades.

In 2000, Dayton won his U.S. Senate seat after beating the DFL-endorsed candidate in a primary and went on to win the general election against Republican Sen. Rod Grams. In 1990, he ran and won a statewide race for auditor.

The heir to the Dayton's department store fortune spent about $12 million of his own money on his 2000 Senate campaign. He has said that he will seed his gubernatorial war chest with his own cash but also that he hopes to raise contributions.

Dayton has said he expects to run in a primary whether or not he gets the DFL endorsement next year. That means the AFSCME endorsement may put the union in the awkward position of campaigning for Dayton against the DFL-endorsed candidate, should the party endorse someone else.

"He is the best position to win this election next fall," Seide said.

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger • 651-292-0164