Dayton considering run for governor

By By Kevin Diaz, McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Democrat Mark Dayton, stepping down after six years in the U.S. Senate, announced today that he is considering a run for Minnesota governor in 2010.

Dayton, speaking to reporters during the last minutes of his Senate tenure, said the defeat of fellow DFLer Mike Hatch for governor in November prompted him to consider his own candidacy in four years.

"It's very tentative," Dayton said. "It's a decision I wouldn't make for a few years."

He added that so far he has consulted only with a few close friends and family members.

He declined to place odds on the likelihood of a run. "It's all extremely premature," he said. "Four years is a political light year."

Dayton did not run for re-election to the Senate last year, expressing frustration with the style and pace of the Senate, which he called a "reactive, seniority-driven institution."

Many observers did not give him a strong chance of re-election last year, citing his fateful decision to close his Senate office two years ago in reaction to a terror threat on Capitol Hill.

Asked if he had any regrets about not running in light of the Republican Party's election losses in November, he said "None."

Dayton, who largely self-financed his 2000 run for the Senate, declined to say if he would do the same in a governor's race. In the past he has shown a reluctance to engage in the fundraising rituals that occupy the time of many Washington legislators.

The governorship, he said, "would be a different office."