commit them to a security hospital. In 2004 he sued a nursing home that locked vulnerable patients in a ward with sex offenders, some of whom assaulted patients. The Minnesota Department of Corrections sent the patients to live in the nursing home, where they were housed with regular patients amid rat and roach infestations. Employees were instructed to tell residents the rats were "bunnies." The nursing home was shut down. In 2005 Hatch appeared in court to argue that an insurance company should pay the claim of two little girls who survived an airplane crash that killed their mother in northern Minnesota. One of his former chief deputies said of Hatch's tenure as attorney general: "You could expect his light to be on before eight in the morning and you could expect that he was going to go late into the night." 2006 gubernatorial campaign Hatch was endorsed in June at the DFL state convention in Rochester, Minnesota. The endorsement was not binding. In the battle for the endorsement, Hatch defeated state senators Steve Kelley and Becky Lourey. Kelley conceded, but Lourey said she would run in the September primary. Hatch selected former state auditor Judi Dutcher (who had left the Republican party in 2000) as his lieutenant governor candidate, and won the September primary. On November 7, 2006, Hatch lost the general election by less than 1% to the Republican incumbent, Tim Pawlenty, in a four-way race that included Independence Party nominee Peter Hutchinson and Green Party nominee Ken Pentel. Hatch returned to private law practice after his term ended in January 2007. In 2019 he and his successor as attorney general Lori Swanson co-founded Swanson Hatch, P.A., a Minnesota law firm. Electoral history 1998 2002 2006 References External links Campaign 2006: Mike Hatch (Minnesota Public Radio) |- 1948 births Living people Minnesota Attorneys General Minnesota Democrats People from Burnsville, Minnesota Politicians from Duluth, Minnesota State cabinet secretaries of Minnesota State political party chairs of Minnesota University of Minnesota Law School alumni