‘Agonizing’: Still no Coleman-Franken ruling

Chris Steller — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:54:42 +0000

There’s still no ruling from the Minnesota Supreme Court in the Norm Coleman-Al Franken dispute. The court released another regular Thursday morning batch of orders without a word on Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election. The word about the Coleman-Franken fight emblazoned across the cover of the Star Tribune is “agonizing,” but the story makes it sound more so for the few remaining staffers than for the candidates themselves.

Coleman is said to be grilling and kicking back at his cabin. Franken is blissing out because he knows there’s nothing he can do now to affect the ruling.

Meanwhile, their helpmates sweat bullets. Franken aide Jess McIntosh is on tenterhooks until she knows the Supreme Court justices have gone home for the day. And Coleman sidekick Tom Erickson tells the Strib’s Pat Lopez, “I’m afraid to even go to a movie.”

Which doesn’t quite compute with Erickson’s announcement via Twitter Wednesday:

Tomorrow I depart on my first vacation in 4 1/2 years. And no, I am not going to Argentina.

Franken refused to be interviewed, Lopez notes, but she doesn’t directly quote Coleman either, so it’s not clear what he did to help out with the story.

Franken joins with California’s Boxer for fundraising effort

Paul Schmelzer — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:01:37 +0000

Al Franken and Sen. Barbara Boxer (WDCpix)

With his race for U.S. Senate still likely a long way from being resolved, Al Franken continues fundraising — but this time he’s got a partner. He’s joining forces with California Sen. Barbara Boxer to form a fundraising committee that’ll fund his ongoing Senate contest battle and her 2010 re-election bid, CQ Politics reports.

Franken spokesperson Jess McIntosh says Boxer is a strong Franken supporter and confirms there’ll be a July fundraiser for the duo.

The next step in the still-undecided election takes place next Monday, when oral arguments in former Sen. Norm Coleman’s appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court are heard. Both Coleman and Franken have stated they hope to be seated in time to officially weigh in on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, but if Coleman loses in the state’s high court, the dispute may end up before the same court Sotomayor aspires to.

But the Rochester Post-Bulletin’s Chris Miksanek imagines it dragging on even longer. In his review of the film “Terminator Salvation,” he predicts what life will be like in the year 2018:

Skynet runs amok, California passes a proposition allowing cyborgs to marry, and Norm Coleman files another appeal after 400 ballots are found inside an abandoned ATM machine in Polk County.

Minnesota Independent: News. Politics. Media. » Jess McIntosh

‘Agonizing’: Still no Coleman-Franken ruling

Franken joins with California’s Boxer for fundraising effort