In yesterdayâÄôs concession speech, Tom Emmer declared that itâÄôs time to âÄúmove ahead with the peopleâÄôs business.âÄù And so it is.
Emmer and his campaign are to be credited for not drawing out the process inordinately. His concession was timely and showed respect not only for the will of the people and courts, but for the recount process itself. Streamlined since the traumatizing 2008 Senate recount, the process showed signs of improvement.
Not that EmmerâÄôs camp didnâÄôt put up a good fight. Though they filed many ballot challenges that could be considered frivolous by any standard, they withdrew all but a few earlier this week.  EmmerâÄôs concession also comes at least in part as a response to the Minnesota Supreme CourtâÄôs opinion rejecting his petition of the state canvassing board.
But Bush v. Gore it was not. EmmerâÄôs longshot petition rested on a technicality of Minnesota voting law, asserting a difference between counting ballots and voter receipts. The court found no statutory difference between the two, and the distinction was unlikely to have accounted for many votes, anyway.
Emmer also had to face the hard reality that he simply didnâÄôt gain votes since Nov. 2. Despite the dramatic precedent set by the Coleman-Franken race, this recount turned out to be just that: A reaffirmation of initial results, which left Mark Dayton around a narrow 8,700-vote lead.
We also extend congratulations to Mark Dayton, who will finally be able to fill a gubernatorial seat that has been effectively vacant for years. With a $6.2-billion budget deficit and a new Republican majority in the Legislature, he certainly has his work cut out for him.