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Correction Appended

Gov. Paul LePage of Maine said Friday that the state’s N.A.A.C.P. leaders could “kiss my butt” after they questioned his decision not to attend Martin Luther King Day events in Bangor and Portland.

The remark by Mr. LePage, a newly elected Republican, came after The Portland Press Herald reported Friday that the N.A.A.C.P. felt increasingly slighted by him. Leaders of the group’s Maine chapters told the newspaper that Mr. LePage had declined several invitations from them in recent months and questioned whether he would look out for their interests.

Asked to respond Friday, Mr. LePage – who gained a reputation for combativeness on the campaign trail – said he merely had scheduling conflicts. He also said the N.A.A.C.P. officials should “look at my family picture,” pointing out his adopted son.

“My son happens to be black, so they can do whatever they’d like about it,” he told a reporter for WGME. “The fact of the matter is there’s only so many hours in a day, so many hours in a week, and so much that you can do.”

When the reporter asked Mr. LePage to respond to the suggestion that he had a pattern of slighting the N.A.A.C.P., he said, “Tell them to kiss my butt,” adding, “If they want to play the race card, come to dinner. My son will talk to them.”

Mr. LePage’s spokesman, Dan Demeritt, later released a statement reiterating that the governor’s decision not to attend the events on Monday was not about race. “This is about a special interest group taking issue with the governor for not making time for them,” the statement said, “and the governor dismissing their complaints in the direct manner people have come to expect from Paul LePage.”

Mr. Demeritt also released the text of a recorded radio address, scheduled to be broadcast Saturday, in which Mr. LePage praises Dr. King as someone who “spent and ultimately gave his life making sure that people got a fair shake regardless of race.”

During the campaign, Mr. LePage turned heads when he told a group of fishermen that if elected he would tell President Obama “to go to hell.”

Correction: January 14, 2011

An earlier version of this post misidentified the television station where the reporter Mr. LePage spoke worked. It was WGME, not WCSH-TV6.

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Tom Emmer, the Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota, conceded the race to the Democrat Mark Dayton on Wednesday morning, ending the last undecided governor’s race from the 2010 midterm elections.

Speaking to reporters from the front porch of his home in the city of Delano, Mr. Emmer said he would not continue to challenge the election results.

“I do not believe a delay in seating the next governor will help to unite us or move our state forward,” Mr. Emmer said.

Mr. Dayton, a former United States senator, will become governor in January, replacing  Tim Pawlenty, a Republican who is considering a run for the White House in 2012. Mr. Dayton had led the race by about 8,700 votes, but state law required an automatic recount for a race that close.

Both campaigns challenged dozens of ballots in the recount that began on Nov. 29. The state’s canvassing board had planned to review the challenged ballots on Wednesday.

Many Minnesotans did not want to endure another bitter recount like the one that decided the Senate race in 2008, when the Democratic candidate, Al Franken, won after a nearly eight-month battle with Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent.

Mr. Dayton’s win in Minnesota came as welcome news for Democrats after they lost several governors’ races in the midterm elections. In the Midwest, Republicans won statehouses formerly held by Democrats in Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

During his phone call to concede the race, Mr. Emmer said he invited Mr. Dayton to come to his house to go ice skating in his backyard.

“Mark Dayton was not elected to be governor of Minnesota Democrats. He was elected to be the governor of the State of Minnesota,” Mr. Emmer said. “We congratulate him, and we offer to help him in any way we can.”

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Election officials in Minnesota began a massive recount on Monday to determine the winner of the only gubernatorial race that is still undecided from the 2010 midterm elections.

The Democratic candidate and former United States senator, Mark Dayton, has held a narrow lead of about 8,700 votes against Tom Emmer, his Republican opponent and a state representative. State law requires an automatic recount when a race is that close.

Election officials must review all 2.1 million ballots from the election by hand in a process that is expected to last about nine days. The state’s canvassing board will then review any ballot challenges and certify the results on Dec. 14.

The recount may feel like déjà vu for Minnesotans, who endured a long and bitter recount over a Senate race in 2008. The Democratic candidate, Al Franken, won the seat after a nearly eight month battle with Norm Coleman, the incumbent and Republican candidate.

“The recount is familiar territory for Minnesota election officials,” said John Aiken, a spokesman for the secretary of state.

The recount this time is not expected to last as long because there are fewer votes and the margin between the two candidates is bigger. In the 2008 election, Mr. Franken ended up winning by only 312 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast.

The governor’s race in Minnesota could give Democrats an opportunity to pick up a seat after losing several governor races during the midterm elections. In the Midwest, Republicans won governor seats formerly held by Democrats in Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan and Ohio.

Minnesota’s current governor, Tim Pawlenty, a Republican who did not seek re-election, is widely seen as considering a run for president.

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Former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley was convicted on Tuesday of knowingly filing a false campaign report, becoming the state’s first governor to admit to a felony. The plea by Easley, a Democrat who was governor from 2001 to 2009, halts state and federal investigations that lasted nearly two years. The 60-year-old former prosecutor and [...]

SAN DIEGO — At the final news conference of the Republican Governors Association conference here, a nervous (and beautiful) young reporter addressed her question to the “president” instead of the governor – but which governor? “Hopefully someday you will be president,” she corrected herself, and now all six men in blue shirts sitting at the [...]

Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota has been gearing up for a bid for the Republican presidential nomination for months. He chose not to run for re-election as governor. He has hit the early-state circuit. Everything is ready once he leaves office on Jan. 3.

Except for this: He may not be able to leave.

Under Minnesota law, the governor’s term extends as long as it takes to swear in a  successor, even if a recount takes months. And that could just happen.

The race to replace Mr. Pawlenty between the Democrat Mark Dayton and the Republican Tom Emmer ended last Tuesday in what is becoming a regular outcome in the North Star state — a virtual tie. Out of about 2.1 million votes cast, Mr. Dayton leads Mr. Emmer by about 8,500 votes, less than the half-percentage point margin that mandates an automatic recount.

That recount will start on Nov. 27 and is scheduled to last until early December, at which point the trailing candidate could choose to challenge the recount by filing a lawsuit. Mr. Emmer’s advisers and state Republicans have made it clear they will do so if they feel they have a legitimate case.

“If we are behind and we think that there are issues with the recount, we could file a contest,” said Tony Sutton, the chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota. “We’re not looking to kick this past the first of the year. We are not going to do things to throw stuff against the law and see what sticks.”

In 2008, a recount in the race between the Democratic senate candidate Al Franken and the incumbent Republican Norm Coleman took eight months and ended only when Mr. Franken was sworn in on July 7, 2009.

If that were to happen this time around – possible, though not exactly likely — Mr. Pawlenty’s presidential ambitions could be put on hold for months as he sits in the governor’s mansion. In a statement after the election, Mr. Pawlenty said that “I will continue to serve as governor until a new governor takes the oath.”

The margin between Mr. Dayton and Mr. Enmmer is much larger than it was in Mr. Franken’s Senate race, and even Republicans in the state privately think it’s unlikely to drag out for that long again.

But if it did, what would that mean for Mr. Pawlenty and his presidential hopes?

It could present an opportunity for Mr. Pawlenty, who is not well known around the country, to raise his profile. With the state’s Legislature soon to be in Republican control and headed back into session on Jan. 4, Mr. Pawlenty could theoretically be sitting in the governor’s chair, ready to sign into law some legislation that conservative primary voters might find appealing.

Such a move would generate controversy – and much-needed national news media attention – since it would amount to a lame-duck Republican governor pushing a conservative agenda with the possibility of a Democratic governor waiting in the wings. That could be just the kind of story that Mr. Pawlenty needs to bolster his credentials with Tea Party supporters.

But gaming the political system that way may offend the voters of Minnesota, not to mention others. In an interview this week, Mr. Pawlenty said that he would not seek to quickly sign any major legislation before the next governor is known. And the incoming state House speaker has promised not to try and ram legislation through for Mr. Pawlenty’s signature.

“If there was a holdover situation, it’s not something you try to exploit,” Mr. Pawlenty said.

Being in St. Paul instead of out on the 2012 campaign trail might not be how Mr. Pawlenty’s advisers would like to begin the year. But either way, the two-term — and maybe a bit more — Minnesota governor has a plan for January he intends to keep: a book tour that aides promise will happen one way or the other.

“Courage to Stand: An American Story” is due out in bookstores on Jan. 11.

Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.

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