Spector Makes 59..Franken makes 60

The news is in. Yes! Arlen Spector a life long Republican from Pennsylvania decided recently to switch party's making the race..assuming Franken is seating (which is all but inevitable) up to 60 votes. This is so important because it would provide a veto proof majority in Congress that wuold allow the President to sign crucial legislation loike Health care, energy, education and hopefully Labor reform

Spector was seen as a vulnerable candidate in 2010, where he was loosing in his Republican primary. This is a symptom of a larger issue of Republicans driving moderates out of the party. In his statement He cited that the party was taking ideology over political relevance. "They don't make any bones about their willingness to lose the general election if they can purify the party. I don't understand it but that's what they say."

60 votes... 60 that's huge. It has always been the magic number. With Franken getting seated in the future, real reform will happen in this Congress. The last few months have been filled with Republicans using their Senate minority to block legislation and to make the Democrats look bad, but with this vote, that could change. Granted Spector isn't an automatic vote, butmif he wants to do well in the Democratic primary in 13 Months, he will have to take Democratic Party Platform possitions.


What Does this mean For Franken?

This means the stakes just hot higher. A 60th vote in the senate would make the minority party less relevent. This makes the Coleman lawsuit even more applicable and John Cornyn's push for the Supreme Court appeal even louder.

But.. Pawlenty said that Spector's decision didnt affect the contest in Minnesota, or when he would sign a certificate. This could be good or bad news for Democrats because Pawlenty remains vague on the issue.
"We're going to follow the law with respect to the Franken/Coleman litigation and when and how a certificate gets issued," Pawlenty said. "So again, the situation with Pennsylvania has no connection or impact on what's going to happen in Minnesota."



This could be a historic moment. We will just have to wait and see.

Coleman -sore loser - Minnesotan's want him gone

It is sure nice living in this little old state tucked away and near Canada getting noticed on a national scale. But frankly, I don't like that we are noticed for our crazy politics.

Coleman recently told the Pioneer Press that "We Will Never Know who won." claiming that margin is so close that it our elections were not designed.

What Coleman forgot, is that we have a system for this. It is called a recount panel and a challenging trial. Norm Coleman has exhausted his chances of winning outside of appeals. Not only did the the tri-partisan trail judges soundly reject his claims...and pretty much already answer the questions presented to the supreme court, but they made it clear only legal votes were aloud to be introduced.

Minnesotan have now seen that Coleman's time has past to concede. In a recent poll Minnesotas now believe he should concede by about 2:1

Do you think Norm Coleman should appeal the decision and continue to fight in court or should Coleman concede the race?

Appeal: 37%
Concede: 63%

MinnPost reports MN jobs in stimulus

If you have been reading my blog, you've noticed that my push on the stimulus is all about jobs, here and now. MinnPost has had excellent coverage on the stimulus and how it will affect Minnesota. Essentially, it comes down to Minnesota will be saving or creating a lot of good paying jobs. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.... I can't emphasize how important a good paying job is to the economy. A good paying job essentially hold more economic weight. For example, a job at the Ford Ranger plant...a high skilled worker makes several retail or related jobs possible. Basically what it boils down to is if you save a well paid job, you save a lot more other jobs.

" To arrive at this number, some funding/tax cuts were reduced, others dropped.
One of the most talked about reductions was a cut of about $25 billion from a state fiscal stabilization fund. The fund had been $79 billion in the House and was lowered to $40 billion in the Senate. The compromise brought that amount back to $53.6 billion.n. ........

Negotiators also decided to cut back on spending that would have provided health insurance to the unemployed. The House version had provided a 65 percent subsidy for nine months. The Senate version reduced that to a 50 percent subsidy for 12 months. The compromise will include a 60 percent subsidy for nine months. The compromise also kept the elimination of the Medicaid option for unemployed individuals who are not eligible for COBRA, a provision that had been in the House version, but was cut out in the Senate........


Minnesota benefits
According to White House figures, here's what the compromise legislation provides Minnesota:

• 66,000 jobs created or saved over the next two years. (Under previous versions, this number was estimated at 70,000.) The jobs breakdown by Congressional is 7,100 in District 1, 8,400 in District 2, 7,600 in District 3, 7,000 in District 4, 7,200 in District 5, 8,700 in District 6, 6,800 in District 7 and 7,400 in District 8. (If you're a math person, these numbers do not equal 66,000… still.)

• A tax cut of up to $800 for 2,120,000 workers. (The cut had been $1,000 in previous legislation.)

• Makes 41,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. The credit is designed to make college affordable by creating a $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college.

• Offers an additional $100 per month in unemployment benefits to 331,000 workers in Minnesota who have lost their jobs in the recession and provides extended unemployment benefits to an additional 52,000 laid-off workers.

• Provides funding to modernize at least 91 schools in Minnesota."





Read full article here

News coference at 3 pm: I think that he might cocede

The prospects of Norm winning at this point are next to nothing. I think that there might be a chance he concedes setting up a political future. If he fights this out and still ends up the loser it might shoot down his political future. If he somehow fights and pulls an upset, his new term would be clouded in controversy. So if Norm wants to be a candidate again (ex. Gov 2010), hi best chances of a future are if he concedes today.




Also I stole this piece from the Power Liberal, I thought it was very relevant.

Franken Wins according to Canvas Board and SoS...But more to follow

"Al Franken was declared the winner over Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) in the Minnesota Senate race, but the Coleman campaign has announced it will be contesting the results in a post-election challenge." says Politico.


My analysis:
-Basically here is how it rolls out. Franken is 225 votes ahead after the recount. That is nearly a 1000 vote swing from election night projections. The recount looks to be transparent conducted by non-partisan county election officials a TRI-partisan canvas board that included 2 Republicans (appointed by Pawlenty) and 2 Independents and only 1 Democrat (SoS Mark Ritchie). There doesn't seem to be a lot of avenues for Coleman to sue. There is a current suit by the Coleman campaign over a contested 654 votes, which neither county auditors, the canvas board or the Franken campaign. In the MN Supreme Court decision earlier, it stated that all concerned parties must agree. The lack of a real decision by the court probably suggests that the suit won't get any real post-election differing results.

Even hypothetically, if Coleman gets the 654 votes included in the recount, and even further sues for the 133 votes that he claims were double counted, the problem is he would still have to net at least 225 votes. If both decisions are in his favor that only leaves 787 votes. Many didn't believe Franken would be up by such a large margin, but he is. This is statistically very difficult. Coleman would have to get 65% of the votes. That is very very dificult.
Chances are he wont get those decisions, and even if he does he would hve to get a very large margin of them. So at this point it looks like Franken is an almost certain winner.

Time to start cheering.

With the vote total..continuing to decrease, I wonder if Norm Coleman slips behind Franken, whether he will do the prudent thing and concede to Franken in a tax-payer money saving non- partisan gesture. Hmm 336 205 Votes....

Considering one tally from a small township in Pine County gave Franken 24 votes instead of his earned 124, The number could disappear quick.

Lets Hope

Go Al!!

Franken gaining numbers in Canvassing

So- it looks as though on election night, Frankenn was down by as much as 800 votes on Tuesday, but due to the fct of accounting errors or possibly other irregularities have narrowed it down to 338 336 226 votes which is updated every hour and shown on MPR. Kare 11 said that as many as 6000 additional ballots may be counted. It would be interesting to see what precincts those ballots are coming from, but certainly this is a close raise with a margin of .o1% difference at this point. Coleman should be ashamed to try and claim an early victory and further calling for Franken to concede. The outcome is uncertain. I am nervous, but who knows what will happen. .01% thats insane!! Franken, keep on truckin' man

The actual report from Crew's most corrupt

"Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)

Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) is a first-term senator, representing Minnesota. His ethics issues stem from lodging he accepted in violation of the Senate gifts rule.

Failure to Pay Rent

When in Washington, Sen. Coleman lives in a basement apartment in the Capitol Hill townhouse of Republican operative Jeff Larson. Mr. Larson runs FLS Connect, a telemarketing firm, which has been paid over $1.4 million since 2001 by Sen. Coleman’s leadership political action committee (PAC) and two campaign committees. Mr. Larson is also the treasurer of Sen. Coleman’s PAC and provides it with office space in St. Paul, MN. Adding to the relationship between the pair, Mr. Larson’s wife, Dorene Kainz, had been employed as a casework supervisor in Sen. Coleman’s St. Paul office, though after a news organization questioned Sen. Coleman about this, his staff announced that she would leave the office on July 10, 2008.

Over the past year, Sen. Coleman appears to have accepted lodging from Mr. Larson for at least three months without paying the agreed upon rent until caught by National Journal. Although Sen. Coleman paid $1,200 and Mr. Larson cashed a check for an additional $600 after National Journal questioned the pair about the payments, the fact that the payments were not made until flagged by the media heightens rather than diminishes the concerns over Sen. Coleman’s conduct. Sen. Coleman’s repeated missed rent and utility payments, and Mr. Larson’s failure to cash Sen. Coleman’s check suggest that Mr. Larson was not, in fact, necessarily expecting payment. Moreover, it is unclear whether the $600 rental rate represents the fair market value of the apartment considering other rental rates in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. After touring Sen. Coleman’s apartment, a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter wrote that the space is not extravagant but well kept and renovated. A spokesman for Sen. Coleman said, according to their research, the senator is paying fair market value, but a Minnesota political group reported similar apartments on Capitol Hill rent for $1,100 to $1,450.

Because lodging clearly falls within the Senate’s definition of “gift,” Sen. Coleman appears to have violated the Senate gifts rule by accepting free lodging from Mr. Larson, someone who financially benefits from his relationship with the senator. Further complicating the issue is the question of whether the salary paid to Mr. Larson’s wife as an employee in Sen. Coleman’s office might constitute the true payment of the rent. Also troubling is the fact that Sen. Coleman paid his back rent, and Mr. Larson cashed Sen. Coleman’s checks, only once the media began questioning the living arrangement. Finally, by failing to pay his utility bills, which were valued at $532.88 – well over the $49.99 permissible gift limit -- Sen. Coleman accepted an improper gift from Mr. Larson.

On July 1, 2008, CREW filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics requesting an investigation into this matter to determine whether Sen. Coleman has violated the Senate gifts rule."

Full Report Here

Attack Adds on Franken have backfired

Good News
Star Tribune reports that the attack adds that have been so prevalent in the Senate race has backfired on both Coleman and Franken ..... but mostly on Coleman.

"The survey shows that 56 percent of poll respondents consider ads criticizing Franken to be “mostly unfair personal attacks.” Only 42 percent said the same about ads criticizing Coleman" - Star Tribune

The poll shows that Franken has taken a large lead over Coleman:
Franken: 43
Coleman: 34
Barkley: 18


It is nice to see voters have now come to how unfair the Coleman adds really are. Franken has give a great populist message over the past few months. If no good comes from the stock market situation other then the economic policies of non-regulation Bush republicans...like Coleman are bad for the average person. The Middle class needs better economic policies then we have been getting.


Hopefully the DFL can capitalize on this... and build on the 9 point advantage. It is not time to celebrate yet...there is still a month until election day... get out and doorknock ..make phone calls and do some grassroots organizing!!

Why Franken? More like Why Not Norm!

Here is The new Franken Add, it seems his campaign although may be considered turning negative by many, is exploiting the questionable record of Norm Coleman.

While Norm decided to attack Al Franken's passionate remarks of the past make him to ill mannered for Minnesota, many taken out of context, Franken is replying with Adds that show real concerns that Minnesotans should consider. Mostly his ties to business instead of blue collar interests.