Let The Recount Begin . . . Again.

Image via WikipediaMinnesota is quickly becoming known as The Land of 10,000 Recounts.  Or it seems that way because Democrat Mark Dayton currently leads Republican Tom Emmer by some 8,000 votes, meaning we still don't know who's going to be the state's next governor.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who helped oversee the Norm Coleman-Al Franken Senate recount drama that took several months before Franken was declared the winner, promises us that things will be different this time.  The counting, he says, won't start until after Thanksgiving and may end around mid-December.

If only it were that simple.  Unless either candidate comes to their senses, the loser will almost certainly mount a legal challenge that could take the recount into 2011.    State GOP chair Tony Sutton, sounding like Tony Soprano, declared that his party is "not going to get rolled this time", and that "something doesn't smell right" because the Governorship was the only major statewide office they didn't win in a year which saw them sweep the Legislature.  Aren't we getting just a tad greedy here?

The longer the recount goes, the better it looks for Emmer--and for Governor Tim Pawlenty, who would be obligated by law to serve past his term until a winner is declared and certified.  With a Republican-controlled Legislature, a golden opportunity exists to pass laws trimming the size of government to almost nothing and finding new ways to fund programs without resorting to pesky taxes.  With Pawlenty still in office, he could be the table-setter for Emmer, even if it does put a crimp in his plans to run for President.

As for such issues as abortion rights and same sex marriages, expect the new Legislature to pass state constitutional laws against them.

If Dayton wins the recount, how far he gets with his plans to increase taxes on the wealthy without much help from his fellow DFLers remains to be seen.  He might be Pawlenty in reverse, vetoing bills that cut funding and risking a government shutdown.

Both Dayton and Emmer deserve praise for not declaring themselves the winner.  But whoever prevails in the recount and takes the oath of office sometime in 2011 will not have a mandate, with both candidates getting less than fifty percent of the vote.  The challenge for whoever the new governor is to refrain from governing as if he had one.  That would not serve him well come 2014.