Curt Brown reports:
Republicans' mood swung from dour to mildly upbeat late Tuesday night when they realized Hennepin County's double-counting error instantly cut Dayton's lead by 60,000 votes. "When we saw the early numbers, we were like, wow, we're underperforming," said Tony Sutton, state Republican Party chairman. "Then we learned it was a tabulation error, thank God, and our mood improved markedly to guarded optimism." He said the glitch quickly cut Dayton's lead to five percentage points with Republican strongholds such as Wright and Sherburne counties yet to be counted. "We feel pretty good," Sutton said at midnight.
