State Attorney General Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination Sept. 15. (AP)

By Rochelle Olson
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, September 16, 1998; 1:03 a.m. EDT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III soundly won the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's nomination for governor on Tuesday, beating a fellow son of an ex-vice president and a son of a former governor.

Humphrey, whose father and namesake was the most revered Minnesota politician of the century, was up against two other famous Minnesota sons: Ted Mondale, son of former Vice President Walter Mondale, and Mike Freeman, son of former Gov. Orville Freeman.

With 45 percent of precincts reporting, Humphrey had 92,757 votes, or 38 percent, to Freeman's 51,851 votes, or 21 percent. In a crowded race of six candidates, Mondale was fifth with 18,437 votes, or 8 percent.

Humphrey will be up against a close friend, St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, who beat token opposition in the Republican primary. GOP Gov. Arne Carlson is not seeking re-election after two terms.

Shortly after his victory was locked, Humphrey's ailing mother, Muriel Humphrey – the widow of the former senator, vice president and presidential candidate – told a cheering crowd, "Hubert would have been proud."

Humphrey, 55, campaigned on the biggest win of his career – a $6.6 billion settlement for the state against the tobacco industry – his 16 years in the attorney general's office and a proposal to cut taxes by $1.4 billion over four years.

Polls had pegged Humphrey, who goes by the name Skip, as the favorite. His father helped forge the coalition that became the DFL Party.

The lives of the three sons have long been intertwined. Humphrey worked for Walter Mondale. Ted Mondale worked in the young Humphrey's state Senate office. And Freeman worked for both men's fathers.

Mondale, a 40-year-old former state senator making his first bid for statewide office, is fiscally conservative and has distanced himself from the party's traditional labor base.

Freeman, a 49-year-old prosecutor, had the endorsements of the DFL and the AFL-CIO.