“The odds are that something went wrong with respect to counting.”
That’s what Democrat Al Franken’s campaign counsel, David Lillehaug, said this morning about the prospect of a pending statewide recount in yesterday’s U.S. Senate election in Minnesota. “We want to make sure that each ballot that was cast is counted appropriately,” he said.
The most expensive Senate race in Minnesota history looks like it may also end up its closest. With all precincts reporting, and nearly 3 million ballots counted, Norm Coleman eked out a miniscule 726-vote victory over Al Franken, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. In statistical terms, that’s a 42.00 to 41.97 edge for the Republican. Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley garnered 15 percent of the vote and conceded defeat last night.
Barack Obama holds a 49-46 lead over John McCain in Minnesota, according to a new poll conducted by SurveyUSA. That’s within the survey’s 3.9 percent margin of error. No other poll released in recent weeks has shown the…
Al Franken has a slight lead in the U.S. Senate race, according to two polls released today. The Minnesota Public Radio/Humphrey Institute survey shows Franken opening up a 41-38 edge over Norm Coleman, with Independence Party candidate Dean…
Sen. Norm Coleman holds a six-point lead over Al Franken, according to a Mason-Dixon poll released today. The incumbent garnered support from 42 percent of respondents, compared to 36 percent for Franken. Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley trailed…
Sen. Norm Coleman leads Al Franken by a 43-39 percent margin, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll. Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley garnered support from 14 percent of those surveyed. The Republican’s lead is within the poll’s…
On today’s Star Tribune cover Patricia Lopez makes a case that Minnesota voters who don’t intend to vote a straight party line at the top of the ballot could play a critical role in the outcome of the state’s U.S. Senate race. If that sounds familiar it’s because the Strib printed essentially the same story two years ago about voters who backed Democrat Amy Klobuchar for U.S. Senate and Republican Tim Pawlenty for governor. The difference is that in 2006 the poll numbers justified the fuss.
Minnesota’s Senate contest is the only remaining toss-up in the country, according to the latest rankings from the Rothenberg Political Report. Yesterday’s conviction of Sen. Ted Stevens was sufficient to bump his seat over to “lean takeover,” leaving…
Newspaper election endorsements are out — some packing a wallop as bracing as a stiff winter wind in October, others playing it as safe as pre-Halloween trick-or-treating at a local strip mall. Here’s a roundup of candidate preferences for the U.S. Senate and House that Minnesota papers have so far put in print. The recession sees the major dailies’ editorialists cutting back on costly opinions — either picking favorites without naming the issues they like them for, as both the PiPress and Star Tribune have done in the U.S. Senate race, or beating a wholesale retreat from making a pick at all, as the St. Paul Pioneer Press has done in the presidential contest.
Writing at TNR’s The Plank, Jason Zengerle picks up on an interesting fact of recent senate elections in Minnesota:
Here’s a weird bit of trivia. If Al Franken winds up beating Norm Coleman (and he’s now got a
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