Tom Emmer is the Republican-endorsed candidate for governor in Minnesota. Given this standing, the rise of the Tea Party movement, general discontent with Democrats this year, and the tax-and-spend proposals of the three Democrats running for governor, Emmer seemed poise to do very, very well in November.

Until he opened his mouth.

In these troubled economic times, all the candidate needed to do was offer a message about freeing up businesses to create jobs. That means lower taxes and regulations. It means keeping down state spending. That doesn’t sound too difficult, does it?

Instead, Emmer somehow got himself involved in talking about reducing the minimum wage for restaurant servers because they make tips. (Ostensibly, this was a way to help the restaurant owners.) The effect was to enrage these workers, give average Minnesotans pause about Emmer’s priorities and let his opponents tout their tax-the-rich schemes that — in light of Emmer’s attack on the working poor — seem more sane.

Emmer has scrambled to rebound by proposing that waiters and waitresses be allowed to keep the first $20,000 of their tips tax-free. That’s a good idea. It should have been his first.

Where Emmer stumbled was in pitting overtaxed and overburdened restaurant owners against their staff. Here is what Republicans need to talk about: Freedom for everyone, all the time. That means letting workers, their managers and owners keep more of what they earn. It’s not complicated. Don’t make it so.

— Sentinel of Fairmont. July 16