Eric Kleefeld November 9, 2010, 3:11 PM

Minnesota Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer just spoke to reporters at a press conference, seeking to deliver a clear message on the likely recount in the race: That the outcome of the election is not settled, and the process needs to play out.

“The statement is just briefly, thank you all for coming. It’s nice to know that you all care. There’s not much of a statement to make,” Emmer said, opening the presser. “The Minnesota voters have spoken, we just don’t know what they said yet. There’s a process in place that is moving forward, and we should know shortly that the outcome is.”

Democratic nominee Mark Dayton currently leads by a bit under 9,000 votes, or 0.42%. Although this is within the 0.5% margin for a hand recount under state law, many observers think that this margin is too wide for a recount to change the outcome — by contrast, the eight-month long Minnesota Senate recount and legal contest from the 2008 election resulted in a net margin shift of only about 500 votes.

Reporters then asked Emmer a series of key questions: For example, where did he disappear to in the days after the election?

As it turned out, over the weekend he and some of his sons had left the state — indeed, had left the country — going up north to Neepawa, Manitoba, for a post-election trip that had apparently been planned for after his grueling 16 months on the trail. “I’ve been doing what I’m supposed to do,” said Emmer. “I got as far away from here as I could for a couple days.”

Emmer also touted the gains of Republicans in the state legislature, where they gained majorities against seemingly secure previous Dem control. “I think it’s very clear what the public agreed with is that government has to live within its means,” said Emmer, “and they’re looking for people that have a fiscal message, one that’s about creating jobs and getting the economy moving.”

He was also asked whether his recent moves in putting together a legal team were a sign that he was willing to have the process last into January — a scenario that would result in Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty staying on in the interim. “I think what it says is we’re committed to making the process work as it’s intended, that the votes that were cast are counted, and whatever the outcome is we will abide by that.”

Emmer said that errors remained from the election that had to be looked into — most notably a reporting error from Hennepin County (Minneapolis), which briefly resulted in the county reporting a few hundred thousand more votes, and thus an inflated Dayton lead. The explanation for this has been that numerous precincts were entered into the state spreadsheets twice through human error, and that it has been resolved, but the flaws in that vote count have been a key bone of contention for Republicans here.

“I think what I would say is clearly there was something going on that nobody understands yet,” said Emmer. “There have been some explanations, but we’ll let the process go through and find out.”

A reporter asked Emmer what was discussed during his meeting yesterday with Pawlenty. Emmer said that it was a meeting to discuss the possible transition, and that he would imagine the same topics would be discussed during Pawlenty’s meeting today with Dayton.

He was then asked whether he and Pawlenty had discussed the situation of Pawlenty staying on until the race is resolved. “No we did not,” said Emmer. “His wish, as far as I got yesterday, was making sure the process is followed through. And hopefully it is resolved by the end of the year so the next governor can be sworn in on time.”

Toward the end, Emmer was asked whether he had done any soul-searching after the election, as to why he had under-performed Republican legislative candidates and other statewide candidates. (The Democrats won all the other statewide offices, but some of the GOP nominees in those races did indeed win more votes than Emmer.)

Emmer then smiled and, with a bit of a chuckle, seemed to take a shot at the media: “Uh, just poor reporting, that’s it.”

(Special thanks to our old friends at The Uptake, which streamed the press conference live.)

2010 elections, MN-GOV, Recount, Tim Pawlenty, Tom Emmer