Minnesotans woke up this morning to discover that we have a governor-elect. Republican Tom Emmer graciously conceded this morning and Mark Dayton will become Minnesota’s first Democratic governor in twenty years. Dayton won’t have much time to savor his victory as he’ll soon have to develop a budget proposal that addresses a $6 billion deficit. In the short term, Dayton’s victory is welcome news for health care advocates, providers, and others who have been pushing for the state to take advantage of a federal opportunity to expand Medicaid to low-income adults without children. Dayton has promised to sign an executive order authorizing such an expansion. I’ll be working on some of the policy development related to the expansion, so I suspect the next few months will be busy for me.
Minnesota election officials deserve heaps of kudos for overseeing a smooth and orderly recount process. Emmer deserves kudos for putting the good of the state before his own interests or those of his party. And Dayton earns kudos for mounting one of the unlikeliest political comebacks in recent memory. A lot of people, including me, initially dismissed his run for governor as the last gasp of a fading politician. He proved us wrong. Today, I’m happy to call him my next boss.
