Dayton, Johnson go on the attack in last debate

DFL Governor Mark Dayton and his Republican challenger Jeff Johnson used their final debate of the campaign last Friday night to sharpen their attacks, while covering mostly familiar ground on key issues.

But the lively, hour-long broadcast on Twin Cities Public Television also got the candidates talking about a few new things, including Ebola, police surveillance and professional soccer.

Johnson began by defending his claims in a campaign ad that Dayton doesn't know what's in the bills he signs.

"I'm just saying I don't believe that he's engaged," Johnson said. "I don't believe that he's as on top of things as a governor should be, as a leader should be."

Dayton shot back, insisting that he is an engaged governor on things that matter.

"He's doing what a desperate candidate behind does, someone who doesn't offer any new ideas," Dayton said. "He's just trashing me."

Dayton accused Johnson of jumping on little things and losing sight of the big picture. Dayton said the big picture is a state that is doing better than it was before. Johnson countered that his criticism of things like the state health insurance exchange MNsure is a big-picture issue.

"We had the best health insurance coverage in the United States of America before MNsure," Johnson said. "I think almost anyone would agree on that. We don't anymore. We've been sucked down to the national average, and a lot of people are hurting because of that."

Dayton said MNsure is getting better and that he takes responsibility for it.

On energy policy, Johnson called Dayton's long-range goal of eliminating the use of coal for electricity "silly." Dayton blasted Johnson for wanting to spend several years and millions of dollars to audit every state government program. He said Johnson should know that work is already being done.

"We don't throw money blindly at programs and hope they work," Dayton said. "There are those kind of evaluations going on. If you're not comfortable with it and the Legislature's not, the legislative auditor comes in and does program evaluations."

There were a few topics raised in this debate that hadn't been discussed in earlier encounters. One was the on the use of license plate readers for police surveillance. Dayton said he wants limits on the amount of data collected and how long it's retained. Johnson rejected the practice.

"Unless you have probable cause, if you're actually surveilling citizens, I'm not comfortable with that," Johnson said.

The candidates also weighed in on the competing efforts to land a major league soccer team in Minnesota. One group is talking about a new open-air soccer stadium. Johnson used the opportunity to criticize the Vikings stadium deal and said he would oppose any public subsidy for another stadium. Dayton defended the Vikings deal, but agreed with Johnson about another stadium project.

"If it requires a public subsidy, I think we should say no," Dayton said. "We've got enough stadiums right now. We're paying off the ones we have now. Make do with that." The candidates also agreed on allowing Sunday liquor sales, the sale of wine in grocery stores and the need for a dedicated facility in the state to treat any cases of Ebola.

This was the third consecutive debate that excluded Independence Party candidate Hannah Nicollet. TPT said its threshold for candidate invitations was a 5 percent polling average.