picture-15The St. Paul Saints baseball team is again getting political with its new bobblehead promotion. After giving away presidential-themed souvenirs the last two elections and creating the Bobblefoot — a Larry Craig-inspired bathroom stall toy, complete with a tapping foot — the team is turning its attention to the still-unresolved Minnesota Senate race. The doll, 2,500 of which will be given away at the May 23 game against the Sioux Falls Canaries, will be a two-for-one: Al Franken’s face on one side and Norm Coleman’s on the other. The outfit: That of Sesame Street’s numerically obsessed vampire, The Count. (It’s dubbed the “Re-Count.”)

Sean Aronson, the Saints’ media relations director, says the marketing team came up with the idea the day after the recount started, but no one had any idea the election battle was to last so long. “Nobody likes to see this go on forever,” he told the Minnesota Independent. “But in a way, we’ve benefited from it. This is really relevant.”

He doesn’t expect the new doll to be as popular as, say, the Bobblefoot, which has sold for more than $200 on Ebay (here’s one with a buy-it-now price of $189), but he’s certain “people are going to want this.”

Perhaps the collector’s value would go up were it a talking doll. But that’s something Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley is glad didn’t happen, he told the Saints. “Norm-Al will look great on someone’s shelf — silently.”

Here’s a look at the team’s political promotions:

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