Other candidates busy as Obama rallies at U

The spotlight was solely on President Barack Obama’s campus visit Saturday for DFL candidate Mark Dayton, but that didn’t mean the other candidates in the governor’s race could take the day off.
Republican candidate Tom Emmer and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner both spent the day proceeding as usual with their campaigns.
For Horner this meant taking in another Gopher’s home football game this year. He was tailgating before the game with running mate Jim Mulder outside of TCF Bank Stadium.
“There are a lot of pretty important people that hit the stadium and enjoy the game,” Mulder said. “And we’ve been doing this for a few years now so it’s a tradition and an art form.”
Two University regents in fact stopped by the tents to talk during the game.
Horner also made a point of walking down the line for the President’s rally where he said he was well received.
During the game Horner moved between luxury boxes at the game to introduce himself before wrapping the day up with a couple fundraisers.
And while both Horner and Dayton kept to campus, the Emmer camp dotted around the cities making stops for rallies in four suburbs.
At 1 p.m. Emmer made a stop in Burnsville to deliver a speech to about 100 people gathered in the parking lot of a Godfather’s Pizza.
During the speech Emmer recognized the event on campus.
“They’ve asked me, ‘what’s the significance of the president being in town?’” Emmer said. “I think it makes it even more clear the choice that people are going to be asked to make on Nov. 2.”
He went on to urge his supporters to make a final push before the election so that they do not end up regretting the result of their inaction.
Emmer was on campus earlier this month for a College Republicans rally and said that another trip to campus before the election was unlikely because there just isn’t much time left.
And as for the Obama’s speech?
He said that he would probably not be tuning into the nightly news to catch it.