[1] He was in port in South Chicago during the riots after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 and witnessed the clashes between Vietnam War protesters and police during the 1968 Democratic convention.

In spring 1981, Hatch invited Vice President Mondale and Senator Ted Kennedy, the likely Democratic presidential candidates in the 1984 election, to a "Jefferson-Jackson Day" dinner.

[9] In 1981, Hatch printed political buttons, posters and letterhead under the name "The Centrists," promoting the notion that the party had to stand for more than just a conglomeration of interest groups.

[8] A longtime political reporter said of Hatch's tenure as chair: "He worked to rebuild the bitterly divided, debt-ridden DFL Party after its disastrous 1978 election losses.

In September 1982 Hatch was instrumental in getting the DFL Party to endorse Rudy Perpich, who defeated DFL-endorsed candidate Warren Spannaus for governor in the primary election.

Farmers couldn't pay back the loans, falling grain and land prices shrank the value of collateral, and double-digit interest rates on deposits put banks in an impossible squeeze.

[24] Minnesota also established a rural farm advocate program to assist farmers through the loan process[25] and instituted a voluntary mortgage foreclosure moratorium.

[28] The problem was that when the rate of return lowered from 20% in 1980 to 8% in 1984, the loss in anticipated investment profit could not sustain the outflow of cash necessary to pay insurance claims.

The losses sustained by cash flow underwriting were particularly hard on commercial insurers that expected to earn a high profit for many years until claims came due.

The 1980s was a time of high-profile corporate raids around the nation, in which leveraged buyout artists made bids that often resulted in the closure or liquidation of the target company.

A Minnesota political reporter wrote that Hatch was "a zealous consumer watchdog in the regulation of banks, insurance companies, securities and real estate firms.

"[54] As an attorney in private practice with his own Minneapolis law firm, Hatch represented over 50 women pro bono in lawsuits to receive coverage from their HMOs for breast cancer treatment.

In October 2000, he filed suit against Blue Cross, the state's largest health insurer, alleging that it routinely refused to pay for treatment for children and young adults suffering from mental illness, eating disorders, and chemical dependency.

[72] Hatch later expanded the lawsuit to include testimony from many more families and from former Blue Cross employees who said they intentionally declined coverage simply to save the insurer money.

[74] Hatch eventually secured a legal settlement with Blue Cross that created a three-judge panel to automatically review any decision by the insurer to deny mental health care for children.

[76] At the time of the settlement, Blue Cross said that "we've failed these families in some important ways" and credited Hatch's lawsuit as a wake-up call that forced the company to change its practices.

[83] The Rochester Post Bulletin wrote, "Mike Hatch is performing a genuine public service in giving people an insight into some of the spending habits and accounting practices of Allina Health System.

[87] The yearlong compliance review found that executives ate lavish meals, traveled the world, gave gifts of Waterford crystal, and engaged in inappropriate entertainment spending inconsistent with the mission of an HMO.

The hospitals also agreed to change their debt-collection practices to offer more charity care and give patients greater rights to negotiate payment terms.

[93] In a May 9, 2005 editorial, the Star Tribune wrote, "It is good to see Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch adopting the uninsured, the orphans of the health care system, and getting them a better deal.

"[94] In 2005 and 2006, Hatch conducted a compliance review of Blue Cross, the state's largest health insurer, which found that it had amassed more than $1 billion in financial reserves while raising premiums and shifting costs to consumers.

[96] The state legislature did not act on his proposal, and in 2017 the Star Tribune ran a multi-part investigative special report exposing abuses of patients in such facilities.

[102] After 15 people were arrested in multi-million-dollar rings spanning 24 states that solicited young girls for prostitution, Hatch formed a task force to recommend legislative improvements.

[104] The year after Hatch issued this report, California experienced widespread power blackouts and 800 percent rate hikes after it deregulated electricity markets.

[105] In 2005, Allina Health System dropped its efforts to buy two cardiology practices after Hatch filed a lawsuit claiming that its proposal would give it a monopoly in local cardiac care.

In 2001 he petitioned the Public Utilities Commission to put the brakes on a "no surprise bill" program by Reliant Energy Minnegasco that was marketed as a way for consumers to bring predictability to their home heating costs but resulted in customers paying as much as 20 percent more on natural gas.

[109] In 2005 he issued a scathing report faulting CenterPoint Energy for deliberately violating the law designed to protect low-income people from having their heat turned off in the winter.

In 2003 he filed a lawsuit against Cross Country Bank for selling subprime credit cards with low balance limits to poor people and then harassing them with debt-collection calls.

[133] 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.

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.