2008 Senate Races

An established Republican Senator lost to a dip**** comedian -- could they fall any farther ?

 

I embarrassed myself at work yesterday laughing out loud at this picture.

Don't do that to me again.

 

Does any of this speak to his ideas on the issues?

Of course not.

 

Al Franken is one of the most intelligent people on politics and the state of this union since Dubya's reign. I can't wait for him to get in there, I hope he stays true to himself and call out the crap

 

Norm Coleman just had a press conference where he announced he is filing an election challenge. He cited possible double counted votes and absentee ballots that had been improperly rejected. I do find it ironic a few weeks ago it was the Franken campaign going to the court to see about rejected absentee ballots. Its still going to be awhile before there is an official senator from Minnesota.

 

I used to think he was fairly smart but if you had the chance to watch any of his debate performances this campaign he came off more often as either a hack or a bore where his answers often were either party line boilerplate or evasive. The worst thing in my opinion that hurt him was even though he was an actor and comedian was that he frequently came off as boring. In the primary debates that I saw him he got far outperformed in terms of style and substancy by other primary opponents and didn't come off much better during the general debates.

 

As Nate Silver points out:

"...in his career running for statewide office, Coleman has lost to a professional wrestler, beaten a dead guy, and then tied a comedian."


somewhere Paul Wellstone is laughing

 

Caroline Kennedy to withdraw her name from consideration for Clinton's seat.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28780112/?gt1=43001

Reports: Kennedy to end Senate bid
Source tells NBC News that she plans to withdraw her name

msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 54 minutes ago
ALBANY, New York - Caroline Kennedy has decided to withdraw her name from consideration for the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton, according to NBC News' Mark Murray.

Several newspapers had reported earlier Wednesday that Kennedy had taken herself out of consideration for the job, but were unable to confirm the decision with Kennedy herself. Murray said she was expected to put out a statement later Wednesday night.

The New York Times cited as its source a person told of her decision and reported that she called New York Gov. David Paterson to express concerns about the health of her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was hospitalized Tuesday after a seizure. A statement from Kennedy could come as early as Wednesday evening, the Times reported.

Also reporting that Kennedy had withdrawn were the New York Post and Newsday.

Earlier this week, Paterson acknowledged he was considering Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for appointment to the seat.

Recent polls showed New Yorkers narrowly favor Cuomo over Kennedy, the 51-year-old daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy. Cuomo is the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. Kennedy's emergence as a contender generated both buzz and controversy. She comes from a Democratic dynasty but has never held public office, and some Republicans and Democrats have criticized her lack of experience.

Paterson told CBS News at an interview during the inauguration of President Barack Obama that Cuomo "has outstanding qualities and is someone I am considering."

He also noted that he was considering lesser known candidates as well. Obama nominated Clinton to be his secretary of state, and she was confirmed Wednesday.

Paterson has been criticized by good-government groups for a secretive selection process that he defends as essential to making the best choice without regard to traditional campaigning. Paterson and Cuomo were also criticized for refusing to say whether Cuomo was interested in the Senate seat.

Paterson has said their conversations were confidential under attorney-client privilege, a legal view questioned by experts in recent interviews with The Associated Press. Cuomo said he would allow only Paterson to divulge those discussions because it was the governor's process.

Kennedy was an early front-runner when she took a short public tour upstate and sat for press interviews in December. But she faltered while answering some questions and was mocked nationwide for her frequent use of "you know" and "um."

"I was very impressed by her in our conversation. I found her to be very hardworking, very forthright. And she had some faux pas with the media when she first started, as have a number of people who have gone on to be outstanding in their service," Paterson said. "So I am weighing her ability and her acumen and what she might be able to do in New York, more than that, and also, in comparison with some rather stiff competition in New York."

 

In other news still no end in sight for Minnesota's senate race. I guess those of us in Minnesota are going to have to get used to only having half the representation in the Senate of North Dakota.

http://www.startribune.com/politics...ArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUX

Senate recount: Franken, Coleman court resolution
While lawyers argued a motion to dismiss Coleman's suit for more vote counting, he and Franken were in Washington making their cases there.

By KEVIN DIAZ and PAT DOYLE, Star Tribune Staff Writers

Last update: January 21, 2009 - 10:06 PM

Minnesota's U.S. Senate battle played out on two fronts Wednesday, as Norm Coleman and Al Franken met separately with national party leaders in Washington while their lawyers squared off in a St. Paul courtroom.

"Reports of my defeat are greatly exaggerated," Coleman said in an interview after a luncheon meeting with Republican senators. "Franken's lead is artificial. Any attempt to shut off this process is not going to succeed."

Franken, in a joint appearance with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suggested that the race is all but over. "President Obama said [Tuesday] that we've got to work and address the problems that we have, so that's what we're doing here today."

With Franken's 225-vote lead after a lengthy recount certified by Minnesota's Canvassing Board, Reid said, "The race in Minnesota is over with. ... There's no way the elections results are going to change."

Earlier in the day, Reid said the Senate will "probably" try to seat Franken, but didn't say when. In their closed-door meeting, the two reportedly discussed Franken's role in the upcoming Senate agenda, including possible committee assignments. "That's still a work in progress," Reid said.

For his part, Coleman said enough irregularities have been found to reverse the outcome. "There's no question the votes are there to overcome a very slim lead," he said. Seating Franken before he obtained an election certificate in Minnesota would be "way out of line," Coleman said.

Meanwhile, in St. Paul, lawyers for Franken accused Coleman of launching a "fishing expedition" in his challenge of the recount. They urged the three-judge panel to dismiss the lawsuit seeking a wide-ranging court fight over the outcome.

"Ballots are filled out by human beings," said David Burman, a lawyer for Franken. "Elections are run by human beings. ... At some point, Minnesota has to say, 'We've done the best job that human beings can reasonably do.'"

But Coleman's attorneys argued that he is entitled to a trial, saying the state Supreme Court and state law invited him to bring evidence of his arguments that he was disadvantaged by ballots that were improperly rejected or counted.

"Those are the sorts of things that the Minnesota Supreme Court said were fodder for this court," said attorney Jim Langdon.

If the judges refuse to dismiss the suit, the Franken lawyers said, they could limit Coleman to a review of some of the specific claims he was unable to pursue before the Canvassing Board. Those include his argument that 654 absentee ballots from mostly Republican areas were wrongly rejected, that votes may have been counted twice in 22 mostly Democratic precincts and that some missing ballots artificially inflated Franken's total.

The panel, made up of District Court Judges Elizabeth Hayden, Kurt Marben and Denise Reilly, took the matter under consideration and did not indicate when it might rule. Trial is scheduled to begin Monday on the lawsuit.

Burman said that Coleman's bid for a possibly wide-ranging inquiry isn't allowed in state court and could only be heard by the U.S. Senate.

But Langdon told the judges they had authority under state law to delve into the claims. "Now is the time," he said. "Here is the place, this court, for this long election process to be concluded."

During the recount, the Minnesota Supreme Court said some of Coleman's claims could be taken up later in an election contest. Burman suggested the court was referring to a contest before the Senate rather than in a state court, but Langdon said it was clear that "those are the sorts of things the Minnesota Supreme Court said, file with this court."

Coleman spokesman Ben Ginsberg accused the Franken campaign of "basically trying to do an end-run around Minnesota law to put it squarely in the United States Senate where there are 58 Democratic senators right now."

That theme played out Wednesday in Washington.

Luke Friedrich, a Coleman spokesman, accused Franken of trying to "short-circuit" the process and portray himself as the winner, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., called for patience in the legal battle. "It remains the view of every single member of my conference that the Minnesota Senate race will indeed be decided in Minnesota, and not in Washington," he said.

While Democrats on Capitol Hill have vowed to seat Franken, Reid has been reluctant to press the issue in the Senate, where Republicans have enough votes to block such a move. Asked if he would wait until all the legal challenges are resolved, Reid said, "We'll have to wait and see. We're going to see if Coleman's people are just being dilatory or have some meritorious issues."

Franken, who was in Washington for the inauguration, said in an interview Sunday that he is eager to get to work. "I hope to get to the Senate as soon as I can because there's so much important stuff that has to be done," he said. "There's going to be a huge stimulus package voted on soon, and Amy [Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.] is both the junior and senior senator right now. It would be nice to have two of us fighting for Minnesota."

Staff writer Kevin Duchschere contributed to this report.

kdiaz@startribune.com • 202-408-2753

pdoyle@startribune.com • 651-222-1210

 

This is great news. She had no business getting a Senate seat handed to her just because of her last name. I wonder if she pulled out to save face because she knew Paterson was going to choose someone else.

 

Kudos, Gov. Paterson.



http://www.nypost.com/seven/0123200...icks_gillibrand_as_liberal_dems_ho_151502.htm

 

Court Gives Coleman Access to 4,800 More Ballots
[rquoter]
Sen. Norm Coleman (R) received a qualified victory from the three-judge panel hearing his challenge to Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead in the Minnesota Senate race, granting him access to thousands of absentee ballots to help press his case that they were inconsistently counted.

The panel gave the Coleman campaign permission to enter nearly 4,800 disqualified absentee ballots into evidence, as proof of inconsistent standards applied by local elections officials across Minnesota, leading to Franken's slim lead. The pool of ballots was well short of the roughly 11,000 ballots Coleman had sought to enter into evidence.

The number allowed by the panel mirrors the number of ballots the Coleman campaign, by its own admission, expected would be valid among the 11,000 votes they had sought to include.

The Franken campaign had sought to allow a smaller, 654-vote pool of votes allowed into evidence.

"We had what was really what I think will go down as a major point," Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg said in a late Tuesday afternoon conference call. "It is a real victory for those in Minnesota whose votes have not yet been counted."

Both campaigns said Tuesday they had no immediate sense of whether or not the ballots were coming from counties and precincts favoring Coleman or Franken.

“It’s useful to know what the limitations that have been placed on Coleman’s case are,” Franken attorney Marc Elias said. “As you know, it’s been an expanding universe, and a contracting universe, and a re-expanding universe. That universe has now come to a defined place. We now know the scope of ballots they will be permitted to argue from.”

The thousands of ballots entered into evidence will give Coleman opportunity to examine thousands of more ballots to help prove a central tenet of his case: that disqualified absentee ballots were treated capriciously by local elections officials in the aftermath of the election. Coleman attorneys argued in a Tuesday afternoon conference call that the inconsistent treatment of those ballots led to an advantage for Franken in the recount.

For its part, Franken’s campaign expects a good deal fewer than the 4,800 will be counted after the ballots are judged whether or not they should even be counted.

“This is a lot closer to 654 than it is to 12,000,” Elias added.

"For one reason or another, the ballots brought in by the canvassing board came overwhelmingly from Franken precincts," Ginsberg said.

The decision could mark a turning-point in Coleman’s election challenge, moving beyond almost a week of witnesses being called by Coleman to prove their allegation that the ballots had been inconsistently treated.

“The important thing is that we now know the limits placed by the court on Coleman's case,” Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh said, though cautioning against too dramatic of an interpretation of the decision.[/rquoter]

 

When will it stop? Did they forget how to count?

 

This won't make a dimes worth of difference and all it will do is delay Franken taking office. This race is over and isn't even worth following now. If there was a smidgen of a chance Coleman could overtake Franken then this would be very interesting.

Each of these ballots is assumed to be invalid and will have to be proven valid individually one at a time. They will NOT be counted en masse, which was the only snowball's chance that Coleman has. They have already been rejected at least twice before and the success rate of overturning these double-rejections will be 1% if Coleman is lucky. Question: If you scrounge up 4,800 $3 bills, how many of them are likely to be valid currency?

Coleman's flip flopping on ballot validity is so disgusting I want him to lose. What a despicable guy and a sore loser. Even Al Franken is a better choice than this jerkhead.

 

Don't forget that the Franken campaign can also challenge those ballots on an individual basis too.

IN other news State Rep. Phyllis Kahn has introduced a bill to seat Franken, provisionally until the legal wrangling is done. The governor has already said he won't sign it and its unlikely to pass but depending on how much support it gets this will indicate how fed up Minnesota is over this.

 

They did count twice and come up with two different winners, so I'd have to say that they can't count. Best 2 out of 3?

 

Coleman already has an appeal set to go before the MN Supreme Court and very likely one for the USSC.

FYI the appeal is based on equal protection with the Coleman side arguing that different counties used different standards to accept or reject absentee ballots.