Franken taps seasoned campaign manager in Schriock

The Al Franken campaign announced today that Stephanie Schriock (pictured below at right) will manage his bid to oust Sen. Norm Coleman. Schriock, a Mankato native, has a lengthy political resume, most recently serving as chief of staff for Montana Sen. Jon Tester. She also worked as campaign manager for Tester’s successful 2006 bid to unseat three-term incumbent Conrad Burns — considered one of the biggest electoral upsets in recent memory.

Schriock has experience running two prior federal legislative races in Minnesota. She helmed Bill Luther’s re-election campaign in 1998 and served as finance director for Mary Rieder’s unsuccessful bid to oust former Rep. Gil Gutknecht in 1996.

Political observers say the appointment is almost certainly the handiwork of Sen. Charles Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and is a prime signal that the national party intends to make a substantial effort to defeat Coleman. Coleman’s Senate seat has long been viewed as one of the most vulnerable in the country currently held by a Republican incumbent.

The move, however, comes at a time when the Franken camp has been beset by questions about his personal finances, most notably failing to properly pay $50,000 in income taxes in 17 states. Recent polls have consistently shown him trailing Coleman by up to 10 points.

DFL’ers and political analysts have been grumbling for weeks about the lack of a seasoned political operative at the top of Franken’s staff. “What took so long?” asks Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “If they’d had a proven individual two years ago a lot of the trouble they’ve run into probably could have been avoided.”

Jacobs and others point out that Franken’s record should have been stringently vetted well before the campaign got underway so that any potential controversies could be dealt with internally. “When I hear and see these tax stories, that’s a signal to me that they don’t know what they’re doing,” he says.

Jacobs points to three areas that the campaign must deal with immediately if Franken is going to present a credible threat to Coleman in November. Foremost the candidate’s background must be thoroughly scrutinized to ensure that there won’t be any more embarrassing news developments. In addition, he argues that the campaign’s spending needs to be tightened and Franken’s sometimes cantankerous dealings with the media must improve. “Put some handcuffs and maybe even a gag on Franken,” Jacobs suggests. “He’s got to be put under control. The upside is he’s got plenty of time.”

Hamline political science professor David Schultz is hardly more kind in assessing the state of the Franken campaign. “Is this the classic putting lipstick on a pig?” he asks. “Does Franken have fundamentally bigger problems that changing campaign managers won’t solve?”

Schultz is struck by the static nature of the polls in recent weeks. “Unless the Franken campaign can get a bunch of people to rethink Coleman and therefore rethink Franken the race is over.”