“I am going to work day and night to make sure that our kids have a great future and that America’s best days lay ahead,” Franken said in a brief, mid-day appearance with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Franken pledged to focus his efforts on revitalizing the economy, overhauling the country’s health-care system, developing new energy sources and bolstering the nation’s schools.

“Minnesotans are very practical people,” he said. “They want to make sure that the work we do here in the Senate makes sense.”

Reid and Franken took no questions from reporters. Franken is slated to be sworn in as Minnesota’s junior senator tomorrow. He’ll become the legislative body’s 60th Democrat, giving the party a filibuster-proof majority.

“Much has been made about the expectations for Al Franken joining the Senate,” Reid said. “He of course is going to work hard for the people of Minnesota. They’ve gone far too long without full representation.”

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum:

The Minnesota Supreme Court has left no doubt that Al Franken won the 2008 race for the U.S. Senate and should immediately be sworn-in as Minnesota’s newest Senator. I am very pleased to welcome Senator-elect Franken to the Minnesota congressional delegation and I look forward to working with him on important issues, like health care reform and creating new jobs to get our economy back on track.

Tony Sutton, Chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota:

Todays ruling wrongly disenfranchised thousands of Minnesotans who deserve to have their votes counted. Alongside Senator Coleman, the Republican Party of Minnesota has fought to make sure every vote counts and all voters are treated fairly and uniformly. As we move forward, our deeply flawed election system must be dramatically improved to ensure our state’s elections are fair, accurate and reliable.

Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota:

Today’s ruling restores full and fair representation to the citizens of the state of Minnesota. Health care reform, probably the most important legislation of our generation, is being debated in Congress and Minnesotans deserve to have two United States Senators representing their interests in Washington.

Linda Slattengren, President of the Minnesota Nurses Association:

Minnesota’s highest court has affirmed the peoples voice, the election judges, and a lower court in Al Frankens right to be seated as our state’s second U.S. Senator. Let’s get him to work on the people’s business of fixing our broken health care system through federal reform and RN staffing legislation, and protecting workers’ rights through the Employee Free Choice and RESPECT Acts.

Joe Solmonese, Human Rights Campaign President:

Senator-elect Franken has been a long time supporter and strong advocate for fairness and equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. His leadership in the United States Senate will help to ensure that all people in Minnesota, and throughout the country, are treated equally. We were honored to endorse Senator-elect Franken’s
candidacy last March and we look forward to working with him in the U.S. Senate to promote the basic tenant of our democracy that all Americans have full equality under the law.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar:

I congratulate Al Franken on a hard-earned and long-awaited election victory. I welcome him as my new Senate colleague from Minnesota.

I respect Norm Coleman for what I’m sure was a very difficult decision. He had the right to pursue a legal appeal, but he chose to do the right thing for Minnesota. Norm was my Senate colleague for two years. Although on opposite sides of the aisle, we often worked together on issues affecting Minnesota, in particular securing quick federal support for rebuilding the 35W Bridge. Norm is a dedicated public servant. As a Senator, he took to heart his duty to represent and serve the people of Minnesota.

Ray Waldron, President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO:

After a number of people asked Senator Franken to concede in November, he stood his ground and said, “I don’t think so.” This is what we expect for a senator in the State of Minnesota who, in the Paul Wellstone mode, went against the tide and declared it was not over. We are thankful for his strong and steady convictions, and we look forward to working with our new United States Senator.

Coleman conceding on Tuesday. Photo: Chris Steller, MnIndy

“I’m really at peace,” Coleman told reporters at a press conference at his St. Paul home. “I’ve had a lot of time to process this election, think about the past and look to the future. So I really have a sense of peace for where things are at.”

Coleman vowed to work with Franken as he becomes Minnesota’s junior senator. He insisted that the fact that Franken will become the 60th Democratic senator — giving President Obama a filibuster-proof majority — played no role in his decision-making process. “Whatever I can do now to be a unifying force that’s what I’m going to do,” he said.

Coleman professed to have no immediate plans — other than going fishing. Some political observers have speculated that he might turn around and run for governor.

“I haven’t made a decision yet about the future,” he said. The Republican stated that he would likely have more to say on that subject as soon as next week.

Minnesota has had just one senator since January, when Coleman’s first term expired. Gov. Tim Pawlenty also announced that he will sign an election certificate for Franken today, clearing the way for him to be seated in Washington.

“The Minnesota Supreme Court has today addressed the issues surrounding the accuracy and integrity of our election system during the 2008 U.S. Senate race in Minnesota,” Pawlenty said in a statement. “In light of that decision and Senator Coleman’s announcement that he will not be pursuing an appeal, I will be signing the election certificate today as directed by the court and applicable law.”

Update: Gov. Tim Pawlenty has indicated he’ll sign the election certificate

Al Franken (Photo: Aaron Landry)

**UPDATED**
Minnesota’s interminable U.S. Senate race is finally over. Nearly eight months after election day, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Democrat Al Franken prevailed by 312 votes over Republican Norm Coleman. The ruling prompted Coleman to finally concede the contest. Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced shortly thereafter that he will sign an election certificate for Franken today.

“Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled … to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota,” the court concluded.

In plain language, the five-member court meticulously shot down Coleman’s arguments as to why a three-judge panel erred in determining that Franken won the contest. In particular, it found fault with the former senator’s claim that local election officials violated the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by utilizing different standards in determining which absentee ballots should be rejected.

“Coleman neither claims nor produced any evidence that the differing treatment of absentee ballots among jurisdictions during the election was the result of intentional or purposeful discrimination against individuals or classes,” the court noted. “Nor does Coleman claim that the trial court’s February 13 order, establishing certain categories of ballots as not legally cast, was the product of an intent to discriminate against any individual or class.”

The court also rejected Coleman’s contention that he was egregiously harmed by the trial court’s unwillingness to examine some evidence of mishandled ballots.

“We conclude that the trial court ruled correctly that Minnesota law provides no remedy for wrongly accepted absentee ballot return envelopes once those envelopes have been opened and the ballots inside deposited in the ballot box,” the opinion stated.

Shortly after the ruling was released, Coleman called a press conference at his St. Paul home and announced that he had phoned Franken to congratulate him on his victory. “Further litigation damages the unity of our state,” he said.

Coleman’s case from board to panel to Supreme Court

The extraordinarily close election — with roughly 2.4 million ballots cast, and a margin of difference of less than 0.1 percent — dragged on for more than seven months as various election officials and judges sought to determine the accurate winner of the contest. Norm Coleman initially emerged with a precarious 725-vote lead. But even before a mandatory statewide recount began, the Republican’s lead began to wither. The reason? Mistakes made by local officials on election night. For instance, Franken gained 100 votes in Partridge Township when election officials there determined that they’d mistakenly entered the Democrat’s vote tally as 24 on election night instead of 124.

By the time local election officials and campaign volunteers began the tedious, state-mandated process of re-counting every single ballot by hand, Coleman’s lead had shrunk to just 215 votes. That margin continued to dwindle throughout the month-long process, which was overseen by a four-judge panel appointed by Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. Finally on Jan. 5, the Statewide Canvassing Board unanimously ruled that Franken had won the contest by 225 votes.

But this would prove to be merely another phase in the contest. Coleman appealed to the state courts, as is his right under Minnesota’s election laws. His primary argument: local election officials used wildly varying standards in determining which absentee ballots were included in the vote tally, a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

A three-judge panel, picked by Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, spent seven weeks hearing the case. They reviewed 19,000 pages of legal pleadings, 1,717 individual exhibits and testimony from 142 witnesses before ratifying Franken’s victory. The margin: 312 votes.

Coleman then appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court. From the outset, legal observers argued that Coleman faced grim odds in seeking to overturn the trial court’s decision.

Today’s ruling ratified that prevailing sentiment. In addition to rejecting Coleman’s arguments with regards to the Equal Protection Clause, the court shot down the Republican’s contention that some ballots were double-counted and that 132 missing Minneapolis ballots were wrongly included in the final vote tally.

“The ballots are missing, but Coleman introduced no evidence of foul play or misconduct, and the election day precinct returns are available to give effect to those votes,” the ruling notes. “We hold that the trial court did not err in ruling that the election day precinct returns for Minneapolis Ward 3, Precinct 1, were properly included in the tally of legally cast votes.”

Coleman faces an uncertain political future. Some have suggested he might be eyeing Pawlenty’s job — a post he unsuccessfully sought in 1998. But the nasty, multimillion-dollar 2008 campaign, followed by the never-ending election contest, has left both Franken and Coleman bruised.

The Supreme Court case was heard by justices Alan Page, Paul Anderson, Helen Meyer, Christopher Dietzen and Lorie Skjervern Gildea. Justices Eric Magnuson and G. Barry Anderson recused themselves from the case because they both served on the Statewide Canvassing Board that initially certified Franken the winner.

Senator Coleman has been afforded every right to which he is entitled as a candidate for re-election to his vacant Senate seat. I’m pleased that throughout the process the integrity of Minnesota’s election system has been repeatedly validated. The election of a Senator to represent the citizens of our State in the United States Senate should be decided by the citizens of Minnesota and the Minnesota Supreme Court should be the final appeal in this matter. This is a state issue, not a federal issue and Governor Pawlenty should uphold the final decision of Minnesota’s Supreme Court by issuing and signing the election certificate.

I welcome Senator-elect Franken to the Congress and look forward to sharing Minnesota’s workload with him. In these challenging economic times, the people of Minnesota are more inclined then ever before to use the resources Congressional offices provide to citizens and I’m certain the citizens of Minnesota are eager to have one more resource at the federal level.

Noting that “Coleman won’t say ‘uncle,’“ New Jersey’s Star Ledger editorial board can’t hold back:

… Republicans in Washington have urged Coleman to hang in there even if that brands him an obstructionist and/or sore loser — to take one for the team, in short. That’s understandable; it’s politics. What’s not is that the Minnesota court system could be this constipated.

A letter-writer in today’s Star Tribune wanted his second senator yesterday:

It is important who our senator is. But it is more important that we have a working senator. The Minnesota Supreme Court decision is overdue. It should be announced without further contemplation. Decide now, and certify within the hour.

News has been scarce since the Minnesota Supreme Court heard oral arguments June 1, leaving observers looking to the stars, noting the passing of the seasons, and counting the threads of the justices’ robes.

By Monday,  NBC’s Domenico Montanaro was counting everything but his toes [via MinnPost] :

MINNESOTA SENATE RACE – By the numbers
$51.1 million raised between Coleman and Franken for the entire campaign …
63% of a year since Election Day 2008 …
Al Franken for Senate first filed a “Statement of Organization” on Feb. 14, 2007 with the Federal Election Commission, making this whole fiasco 860 days or 2 years, 4 months, 9 days long or 20,640 hours.

Rumors of an impending ruling last Thursday swept the nation’s media like a wildfire before dying out for lack of oxygen.

Readers at MNPublius have been batting around a new rumor, started by one of their own, about a Coleman staffer’s “pre-concession BBQ” that blogger Zach Stephenson took as “a sign that the end is near”:

I flew back to MN from DC today and, as we’re taxiing into the gate at MSP, there’s an obnoxious younger guy talking loudly on his cell phone. In the course of his convo, he identifies himself as a former Coleman staffer and mentions that he’s in town for a “pre-concession bbq” that a bunch of former/current staffers are having…

Of course, if Coleman loses, as most legal observers predict, he might turn around and appeal to the federal courts for redress. But even if that happens, it seems highly likely that Al Franken would receive the election certificate needed to allow him to be seated in Washington.

Norm and Laurie Coleman (Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent)

Norm Coleman owes Al Franken $94,783.15 for court costs. That was the determination of the Ramsey County Court Administrator today. The three-judge panel that heard the U.S. Senate election contest ruled that because Coleman lost he is responsible for covering his opponent’s court costs.

The judgment amount will continue to collect interest until it is paid off. “Costs and interest will accrue on any money judgment amounts from the date of judgment until the judgment is satisfied in full,” the ruling notes.

There’s been no hint of when the Minnesota Supreme Court might rule on Coleman’s appeal. However, John Kostouros, director of communications for the state court system, did state today that the opinion will be issued between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Al Franken Photo: Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent

The end is near in the U.S. Senate contest. That might seem difficult to believe given that the fight has now dragged on for nearly seven months, but the bottom line is that Republican Norm Coleman is running out of legal options.

Election-law experts who have tracked the case closely are unanimous in believing that Coleman’s appeal before the Minnesota Supreme Court will fail — and that it will likely be by a unanimous decision. That will clear the way for Democrat Al Franken to be seated in the U.S. Senate.

Guy-Uriel Charles, a law professor at Duke University, said in an interview that Coleman has a simple problem: He’s asking the justices to ignore state rules pertaining to which absentee ballots are counted. “What he’s asked the Supreme Court to do, as well as what he asked the district court to do, is to ignore Minnesota law as it is written,” Charles said. “There didn’t seem to be a single justice on the court for whom this works.”

Assuming that Charles and other legal observers are correct, the question then becomes whether the state Supreme Court orders Gov. Tim Pawlenty to sign an election certificate, as Franken has requested. If the court fails to do so, Pawlenty would have some wiggle room to resist signing a certificate, thus ingratiating himself to the Republican leadership in Washington, D.C., that would rather see Franken out on the street.

“As soon as he signs it voluntarily, he’s dead meat with Republicans nationwide,” said David Schultz, a professor of law and political science at Hamline University. “They’re never going to remember eight years of no new taxes. They’re going to remember you voluntarily put Al Franken in the Senate.”

But Franken’s legal team would undoubtedly return to the courts immediately seeking such an order. “I can imagine a two-stage dance as opposed to a one-step process,” said Edward Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University who has closely tracked the Minnesota recount saga. “It might require some additional legal skirmishing.”

If Pawlenty is eventually ordered by the court to issue a certificate, as seems likely, he would have little choice but to comply. While many political pundits have observed that the Republican governor’s decision not to seek a third term liberates him to resist calls to sign off on the election, defying the state’s top court would be an extraordinary act.

“I just don’t think the governor is going to have a showdown with the courts on the election certificate,” Charles said. “I just can’t imagine that.”

If Pawlenty were to take such an audacious step, he’d face the prospect of being found in contempt of court. The consequences would likely be a fine or even a stint in jail.

Even if the governor does refuse to sign an election certificate, that doesn’t mean Franken won’t be seated. Although the U.S. Senate has so far agreed to hold off while the election contest is sorted out in the courts, it’s likely that the Democratic-controlled body would lose patience at that point.

“They have insisted on the certificate up until now,” Foley noted. “But it is possible that if the governor refused to issue the certificate in defiance of the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Senate could say it’s now time to seat him.”

Coleman has been adamant that he will pursue every possible legal avenue in the contest. But his supporters in Washington, who have continued to raise money to cover his legal bills, may lose enthusiasm if Franken is seated. With Senate Democrats holding a filibuster-proof majority, and the likelihood of Coleman prevailing diminishing with every new legal ruling, the impetus to fight on may dissipate.

But if Coleman presses on into the federal courts he would have two options. He could file a new lawsuit in U.S. District Court. The difficulty there is that the former senator’s federal claims have already been addressed by the state courts. In non-legal terms, he’s not entitled to two bites of the apple. Unless a federal judge determines that those claims have not been adequately dealt with in the state courts, he’s likely to dismiss the case. Given that the three-judge panel that heard Coleman’s initial contest weighed testimony from 142 witnesses and nearly 20,000 pages of legal documents, such a determination seems unlikely.

“It’s possible that Coleman could find a friendly federal judge,” Foley said. “I think the odds are way against it, but it could happen.”

Coleman’s other option is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Most legal observers agree that the court is highly unlikely to wade into the electoral morass. Foley notes, however, that back in 2000 most such experts strongly believed that the Supreme Court wouldn’t intervene in Bush v. Gore.

“A lot of people had egg on their faces,” he said. “Until they say no it’s at least a theoretical possibility that they could say yes.”

So when might Franken be seated? Schultz believes that the Minnesota Supreme Court will rule by the July 4 holiday and that Franken will make his way to Washington shortly thereafter. “I would see Franken seated sometime no later than the third week of July,” he said.

(Photos: The UpTake)

In what could be the last time the forces of Al Franken and Norm Coleman clash within the same four walls, yesterday’s drama at the Minnesota Supreme Court didn’t disappoint.

The star power alone was enough to short out the huge, eye-like chandelier that hung over the proceedings.

First there was Coleman himself, greeted at the sidewalk by a clutch of cameras, making his courtroom entrance (with entourage) 25 minutes before the proceedings. No longer on crutches and moving with seeming ease, Coleman schmoozed with both sides. “Excellent job, by the way,” he purred to Franken lawyer Kevin Hamilton.

Associate Justice Alan Page, a former Minnesota Viking and the only justice to gain his seat on the bench via election, held the reins in the courtroom in the absence of recused Chief Justice Eric Magnuson.

Glasses propped above his eyebrows and wearing a brightly colored bowtie, Page asked the most questions, and the most basic: “Do we have authority to do anything here?” “Where is the purposeful and and intentional discrimination to create the equal protection claim?”

Page had picked the three lower-court judges who presided over the election contest trial and found Franken the 312-vote victor. Coleman was in court to ask Page and his colleagues to reject that ruling and return the case to the three-judge panel for more ballot-counting.

Each side was allowed three attorneys at its table; Coleman took a chair at his and sat studying the justices’ reactions as his lead lawyer, Joe Friedberg, parried their interruptions and inquisitions. To an inexpert eye, the court didn’t seem to be giving up many clues by their facial expressions and body language, but Coleman’s gift with people likely includes special skills at reading them.

Friedberg was Coleman’s point man and justices’ lightning rod. A prodigious trial attorney with zero election-law experience, Friedberg kept his famous folksiness mostly in check — beyond an opening line that ostentatiously undercut a Coleman miscue in front of the same five justices last December (before Friedberg joined the team).

“Minnesota is quite different from other states,” Friedberg declaimed, an approach 180 degrees from that of Roger Magnuson (no longer with the team) who tried to tell the justices that Minnesota suffered from Florida’s flaws in the 2000 presidential election.

Friedberg had a ready reply, if not always a satisfactory one, for the many questions directed his way. (”Absolutely, 100 percent, unequivocally: No!” was one.) But the expressive Friedberg seemed glum from the outset, perhaps in anticipation of what proved to be a brutal grilling from the bench.

Doug Kelley, Coleman’s attorney in another matter (the civil suits alleging that donor Nasser Kazeminy steered him unreported cash), made a surprise appearance, joining legal clerks and the former senator’s deep bench in chairs behind the main table.

A former assistant U.S. Attorney with a lot on his plate (handling the dissolution of Tom Petters’ empire for one), Kelley nonetheless showed himself capable of the most delicate of finger-waves as he headed back to Coleman’s side of the room following a round of introductions to the Franken team.

Coleman had more attorneys present, but the legal team for his Democratic opposite formed a more cohesive group on the courtroom floor. Before the proceedings all but Marc Elias (Franken’s presenter) joked and goofed; afterwards, the four huddled with smiles all around.