DULUTH – DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican challenger Jeff Johnson sparred Tuesday over which is the better choice for middle-class voters, in the first head-to-head debate between the two candidates.

"I believe Governor Dayton is a very decent man," Johnson said at the morning debate in the Duluth Playhouse. "But I don't believe he understands the struggles and concerns of the middle class."

It was an early jab from Johnson, who noted his own middle-class roots, aimed at a constituency that has been a recent focus of the policymaking and political messaging of the Minnesota DFL. It also drew a swift response from Dayton, who called Johnson's plea to the middle class hypocritical.

"You say you're for the middle class, but you want to lower the minimum wage and lower the tax rate for the super-wealthy," Dayton said. "I don't think that's a consistent policy."

While it frequently returned to economic issues, the hourlong debate was not dominated by any one topic, touching on the Minnesota Vikings stadium project, MNsure, education and transportation. It featured a lively back-and-forth on the proposal by PolyMet Mining Corp. to build a copper-nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes, which has reignited a perennial northeastern Minnesota debate over Iron Range job growth vs. environmental consequences.

The third debate in this year's governor's race, it was the first without low-polling Independence Party candidate Hannah Nicollet, who complained about being excluded. It allowed Dayton and Johnson to turn more sharply toward each other, and while the tone never got ugly, both candidates got in a few jabs, particularly over PolyMet.

"I never called you a wacko," Dayton said after Johnson claimed that Dayton had called him "a wacko, a Neanderthal and now a huckster." But the governor did not take issue with the last term, saying Johnson's vow to call off an ongoing environmental review of PolyMet amounted to making promises about a project that's not fully vetted.

"I do think hucksters are people who promise things unrealistically for selfish advantage," Dayton said. He reeled off other times over the years where projects that promised Iron Range jobs never delivered on them.

Environmental groups are concerned about contaminated runoff from the mine making its way into Lake Superior. Dayton said the nine-year review process, which started before he became governor, has taken too long, but said it would be foolish to terminate it now when it's near an end.

Johnson, expanding on a theme he's emphasized in recent debates, said slow-to-come regulatory approval for projects like PolyMet and the proposed Sandpiper crude-oil pipeline in northern Minnesota demonstrate how Dayton's administration hampers business growth.

"This governor is beholden to what I would call some pretty extreme environmental groups who don't want to see any mining in this state," said Johnson, an attorney and a Hennepin County commissioner. "They also don't want to see pipelines because they don't want to see oil flow."

PolyMet produced some of the tensest exchanges, but the debate most frequently returned to pocketbook issues. When Dayton poked Johnson on the minimum wage, the Republican took issue with the idea that the Dayton-backed boost toward $9.50 an hour by 2018 would push more Minnesotans into the middle class.

"My focus as governor is not going to be on low-wage jobs," Johnson said. "The minimum wage does not create middle-class jobs. I think this focus on the minimum wage is kind of out of touch."

Johnson said he would not seek to repeal the recent wage increase, but would try to undo the provision that ties future increases automatically to inflation.

"I believe in the old-fashioned notion that work should pay," Dayton argued. "If you want to build a middle class, you need to give people a chance to earn that through the workplace. Otherwise the rest of us pay the price for them not being able to do so."

As he argued for the fundamental strength of Minnesota's economy, Dayton ran through a selection of statistics in which Minnesota compares favorably to both the rest of the country and its neighbors in terms of employment rate, per capita income and other measures. He said Johnson was cherry-picking bits of unfavorable news to make the economy look worse than it is.

At issue was a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, cited frequently by Johnson, that says Minnesota's private-sector job creation is lagging behind both the nation and the Midwest.

Dayton characterized that statistic as a one-time outlier.

"I didn't say everything was rosy, I said it's better than when I took office," Dayton said. "You're so desperate to find something to make Minnesota look bad, you'll jump on anything you can find."

Not true, Johnson countered: "I never denigrate Minnesota. I have spent most of my life here. But I think things could be better."

Patrick Condon • 651-925-5049