It’s clear who should be the governor of Minnesota. We urge voters to return incumbent Mark Dayton to office when they go to the polls this November.

Under his watch, the Minnesota economy has strengthened and legislative care for the concerns of Greater Minnesota communities has improved. He cannot take sole credit for these positive steps, but he deserves some of it.

We particularly like that Dayton has been part of a return to sanity when it comes to local government aid, a distribution of state tax dollars as a form of property tax relief. LGA bolsters regional centers that do the heavy lifting of being places to live, work and gather daily, which comes with a greater cost burden than merely being a bedroom community.

Most of all, Dayton listens. He worried us with several of his initial tax plans, such as taxing advertising — which would be like taxing speech — and taxing farm machinery and warehouse storage, but the governor proved to Minnesota that he doesn’t always have to be the one who is right when it comes to the public dialogue in Minnesota. The advertising tax proposal was dropped, and the machinery and warehouse taxes were repealed in light of the steady revenue from the strong economy.

And Dayton came through for the construction bill that provided $7.5 million in state funds toward the dredging of Fountain Lake. The funding was not in the governor’s version of the bonding bill, unfortunately, but when asked about this Dayton stated it shows how lawmaking process works well. The final bill did have it, and he showed his support for it by coming to Albert Lea for a ceremonial signing. He’s not a governor who seeks to impose his will, but rather one who works toward a pragmatic consensus.

Some have said Dayton’s leadership lacks vision. We see his state leadership as more like a steady hand at the controls, a captain steering the ship. Perhaps it is best for Minnesota not to have sweeping plans or some kind of rebooting of the system. Remember Gov. Jesse Ventura’s Big Plan? That didn’t exactly go well in the long term.

Perhaps the secret to Minnesota’s success in recent years has been government leaders simply doing what they are supposed to do — their jobs, as opposed to being stuck in gridlock and not passing budgets that fund the state services or even severely underfund them. The state isn’t cutting services to the point of letting bridges drop into the Mississippi River anymore. We aren’t cutting our way to prosperity because we all know that simply doesn’t work. Just ask our neighbors in Wisconsin, where now they look at Minnesota’s economy with envy.

Hennepin County’s Jeff Johnson, it should be noted, is a good man who has the credentials to lead. We find him to be receptive to moderate ideas, and we don’t get the impression he is one of those angry suburban Republicans we meet from time to time. We feel he is a strong GOP candidate but is up against a popular governor. We hope to see Johnson again in the statewide Minnesota political scene.

We endorse Gov. Dayton. Give him your vote on Nov. 4.