Free Republic

A news report out of Chicago says that a daughter of former Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch was found dead over the weekend in her Magnificent Mile condo. WBBM Radio in Chicago is reporting that Anne Hatch, 27, was pronounced dead at 4:52 p.m. Sunday, after being found in her home, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. The manner of death for Hatch was listed as natural, but the exact cause has not been learned, the radio station added. Police said Hatch was found in her apartment by a building employee who was checking on her welfare, WBBM...

Earlier a reader blog entry covered a little controversy in the Minnesota Governor’s race. Judi Dutcher, who is the running mate of Democrat Governor Candidate Mike Hatch, was asked a question about E-85 fuel. Dutcher responded by asking what E-85 is. Now this is a pretty major blunder here in the agriculture states. E-85 is a major issue for us, so the fact that Dutcher apparently doesn’t know what it is is significant. Tim Pawlenty’s campaign, the incumbent in the race, responded to the blunder by criticizing Dutcher for being ill informed on the issues. Amazingly, The Hatch/Dutcher campaign responded...

One of the side effects of the left's control of the media is that Democratic politicians often have trouble dealing with criticism because they aren't subjected to the 24/7 scrutiny that Republicans usually face. This leads them to fall apart when they come into contact with a reporter that doesn't defer to them like usual. Minnesota's Democratic nominee for the governor's office, Mike Hatch, provided an example of this yesterday in the face of questioning about his running mate's apparent lack of knowledge about the subject of the gasoline additive ethanol. Mike Hatch’s aggressive reputation showed through Thursday for one...

Mike Hatch’s aggressive reputation showed through Thursday for one of the few times in this year’s heated gubernatorial race. Hatch lashed out at Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Republicans for attacking his running mate, Judi Dutcher, over a recent incident in which the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party lieutenant governor candidate appeared to know nothing about E-85 ethanol. “This governor is afraid to debate me on issues,” said Hatch, the current attorney general who recent polls show is narrowly leading Pawlenty in the governor’s race. “He wants to beat up on a woman.” Hatch’s anger overflowed during a Thursday morning telephone interview. A Forum...

"Mike Hatch has spent his adult life running for governor and it seems the major reason he keeps getting rejected is he hasn't learned voters want to know what he plans to do, not how much mud he can fling." Who said that? DFLer R.T. Rybak, back in 1994, while working for a Hatch opponent during the primary campaign in Hatch's second run for governor. Rybak was hardly alone in his views back then. Over the years, Hatch's consuming ambition has prompted many -- both DFLers and Republicans -- to label him an opportunist: a guy who will do whatever...

As a battle-tested veteran of many political and legal wars, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch knew a political torpedo when he saw one approaching. In February 2005, he thought he saw one in a Chicago resident's letter seeking records on how much Hatch office's spent on travel, furniture, artwork and outside lawyers. He traced the suspicious investigation back to a Chicago firm he said is known for doing so-called opposition research -- that is, digging dirt -- for Democrats. In time, he linked the probe to another top state DFL leader, Rep. Matt Entenza.