Since DFL domination began two years ago, we have beat the drum loudly in favor of the checks and balances afforded by divided government in Minnesota.

Unchecked, Democrats — controlling the state House of Representatives, state Senate and governor’s office for the first time in more than 20 years — have increased taxes and state spending, unwisely placing the state’s business climate at further risk. Therefore:

— We support Republican Jeff Johnson for governor.

— We’re convinced Minnesotans will be better served by a House that returns to a Republican majority. It will take only seven seats to do so. With state senators not up for re-election until 2016, the Senate will remain in DFL control.

In conversations after his nomination, before the primary and at our conference table, Johnson impressed us as a thoughtful, capable public servant, a man well qualified to serve as the state’s chief executive.

The limited-government approach espoused by the lone conservative on the Hennepin County Board is the one best suited to a Minnesota business climate already beset by high taxes and regulation. His approach represents an uphill battle. What would be called admirable restraint in the private sector gets tagged as “austerity” — or worse — in the public sphere. Limiting trips to the punch bowl is a hard sell. It can be a downer to explain that forcing employers to pay higher wages will in many cases result in fewer employees.

But we favor the restraint Johnson represents because, long-term, it makes Minnesota more competitive, and that means more jobs and opportunity.

Johnson acknowledges that the state’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average, but he contends that doesn’t get at the real issue: the under-employment rate. About 50 percent of Minnesotans, he told us, “are in a job that they don’t really want to have, but they can’t find anything better. And that is not the sign of a strong economy.”

The valuable local-government experience he brings includes “skills at figuring out how to actually accomplish something when the vast majority of your colleagues don’t agree with you,” said Johnson, who also is a former state representative from Plymouth and an attorney who worked for Cargill handling labor and employment law matters.

He is a believer in what should be the goal of tax reform — make taxes low, broad and simple — and he pledges to work to streamline and scale back regulations, including licensing and permitting, where it’s prudent and the legislative balance of power allows.

Those should be welcome moves for the state’s business community, which argues that current policies, including significant increases in taxes, health care and other costs, hurt our ability to compete here at home and around the globe. Sixty-two percent of employers participating in the Minnesota Business Barometer Survey released earlier this month identified taxes as the major barrier to job creation.

When it comes to education and addressing the achievement gap between the state’s white students and their peers of color, Johnson asserts, correctly, that money alone isn’t the answer. He’s a believer, for example, in the teacher-tenure reform that would base layoffs, when needed, on teacher effectiveness, not seniority. Minnesota could see new hope for such reforms under Republican leadership not beholden to organized labor.

As for Gov. Mark Dayton, at a personal and professional level, we like him very much. In our interactions, he has always been engaged, an absolute gentleman and a pleasure to be around. He has governed just as he said he would. That’s a credit to his integrity.

But the policies he favors, in our estimation, aren’t those that will enhance Minnesota’s competitiveness in the years to come. Mark Davis, whose family owns Cambria and Davisco Food International spoke well to that point in a report in the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune. “We told what we thought the adverse effects would be on our companies and situations,” Davis said. “We told him that we were at a disadvantage being headquartered in Minnesota and having factories in South Dakota and Idaho, where, had we put our headquarters there, we’d pay considerably less taxes.”

Dayton, Davis told the Star Tribune, has “always been willing to listen and engage in the discussion. The fact that he ends up making the wrong decision is probably a comment on my salesmanship.”

The wrong decisions include, in addition to direct tax increases, policies that also drive up costs for taxpayers and businesses. Encouraging public-sector unionization, as he did, simply drives up the expense of government. Increasing the minimum wage is in effect a tax on labor — and when you tax something, you get less of it. The governor and his party too often subordinate the needs of school children to the interests of labor unions and the adults they represent.

Further, our among- the-highest-in-the-nation corporate and individual tax rates present a mirage — a picture of progressivism that hides the ill effects of high taxes on the little guy. Big companies and truly wealthy people, including Dayton himself, have myriad ways of limiting their exposure to higher corporate and income taxes. Meantime, the salary-earner and the smaller business owner pay through the nose.

If given a new term, Dayton has said he wants to work on jobs, workforce readiness and clean energy, and give continued attention to early education. If he were to win re-election, with transportation destined to be a focal point at the Capitol in 2015, Dayton has said he would consider a gas tax increase at the wholesale level to fund infrastructure projects.

Again, we respect Dayton as a person and as a politician; we just believe his policies aren’t what Minnesota needs.

In races for the Minnesota House of Representatives, we focused on meeting candidates in three key open seats in St. Paul and the east metro:

— District 64B in St. Paul’s Highland Park, Macalester-Groveland and West Seventh Street neighborhoods, where Dave Pinto, a prosecutor in the Ramsey County attorney’s office, is the almost- certain winner in a DFL stronghold.

— District 53B in Woodbury, where Republican Kelly Fenton, a former educator and former state party deputy chair, faces Kay Hendrickson, a DFLer with IT experience, as well as advanced degrees in educational policy and administration. Basing our decision on who we consider to be the strongest candidate, rather than party, Hendrickson has our endorsement.

— District 58A in Lakeville, where Republican Jon Koznick is challenged by DFLer Amy Willingham, a leader in the drive for passage of a $5.6 million school levy in 2013. The district is well served by these two refreshing, articulate and sincere candidates. We give the edge, and our endorsement, to Koznick as a better fit for the conservative nature of the district, so well represented for eight terms by outgoing Rep. Mary Liz Holberg. Koznick is a mortgage professional and Holberg’s former campaign chair.