ST. PAUL -- After being locked in a tight race for weeks, Democrat Mark Dayton has opened a lead in Minnesota's race for governor over Republican Tom Emmer, according to the latest Minnesota Public Radio-Humphrey Institute poll.
The poll had Dayton leading Emmer by 11 percentage points, well outside the margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
The landline telephone survey showed Dayton with the backing of 38 percent of 750 likely Minnesota voters and Emmer with 27 percent. Independence Party candidate Tom Horner was the choice of 16 percent of likely voters in the survey conducted Wednesday through Sunday Twenty percent didn't express a preference.
An MPR/Humphrey poll last month had Dayton and Emmer even at 34 percent.
"The big story in September is that the Democrats have woken up from their summer slumber," said University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs, who oversaw the poll.
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The poll found that 22 percent of Republicans plan to vote for Horner instead of Emmer. Ten percent of Democrats planned to cast ballots for Horner.
Poll respondent Gary Klingel, who lives in the northern Minnesota town of Longville, said he supported Emmer but was not locked in.
A former Pillsbury executive, Klingel said his business background leaves him thinking Horner has the most rational approach to addressing Minnesota's budget problems.
"I know that if I had financial troubles I wouldn't be doing one thing at the exclusion of something else. I would be doing them all," Klingel said. "Would I be raising taxes? Yes, I would. Would I be cutting spending? Yes, I would. Would I be reducing the size of government? Yes, I would."
Voter Shirley Gadient, of Rochester, was solidly behind Dayton.
"He seems like a very honest person to me," Gadient said. "He tells it like it is."
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