In what has become a recurring ritual, Minnesota's three major-party candidates for governor debated Friday, appearing at a forum hosted by the Rochester Chamber of Commerce.
With just over a week to go before the Nov. 2 election, it was the latest of nearly two dozen debates staged among DFLer Mark Dayton, the GOP's Tom Emmer and the Independence Party's Tom Horner.
While most of those have been generally civil, the three candidates displayed slightly sharper elbows Friday, criticizing, primarily, each others' plans regarding state taxes.
Emmer said his opponents would "raise billions of dollars in taxes to fund more government," referring to Dayton's proposal to raise income taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans and Horner's plan to apply sales taxes to more items, including clothing. "Three people are running for this office, but [there are] only two messages," he said, repeating his pledge not to raise taxes.
Meanwhile, Horner and Dayton again criticized each other's plans to boost the state's tax revenues.
In a subject close to home in Rochester, one questioner mentioned the Mayo Clinic's criticism of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's decision to opt out of early enrollment in Medicaid coverage, included in the new federal health care law, and to cut medical benefits for poor Minnesotans.
While Emmer said he also would forego opting into the program, Horner and Dayton said they wouldn't. Saying that opting in would bring $1.4 billion to the state, Dayton said "it should be the easiest, most common-sense decision a governor should make" and that he'd sign documents to do so "on day one."
Horner said cutting medical aid to the poor was "was one of the worst decisions the governor has made." That, and Pawlenty's stance on Medicaid, "wasn't about Minnesota. It was about presidential ambitions," he said.
