Hatch cites reasons for loss

11/13/2006

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

In an e-mail to supporters early Saturday morning, Mike Hatch, a Democrat who lost the Minnesota race for governor to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty by less than 1 percent of the vote, said he was defeated for three reasons.

- Independence Party candidate Peter Hutchinson appealed to liberal neighborhoods in the Twin Cities, taking votes that would otherwise have gone to Hatch.

- Areas that are strong ethanol producers turned against him, he said. That’s an apparent reference to his running mate Judi Dutcher’s well-publicized gaffe the week before the election, in which she didn’t recognize the term “E85,” an ethanol-based fuel. “While we still won the northwestern counties — where there are no ethanol plants — we got killed in western and southern counties, where 17 ethanol plants are located,’’ Hatch said.

A- new independent campaign group, “A Stronger America-Minnesota” campaigned hard against him the final week before the election.

“While we could have withstood two of the events, all three created the ‘perfect storm,’ ’’ Hatch said.

Missing from Hatch’s analysis was the impact of his own flubs during the last week of the campaign that may have solidified support against him. The Thursday before the election, he allegedly called a reporter a “Republican whore” and angrily reacted to questions about Dutcher. Other analysts said those incidents made Minnesotans less comfortable voting for Hatch — Minnesotans simply may not have believed his reactions were based, as he claimed, on passion and not the famous temper he has shown in the past.