U.S. Senate

Oral arguments in Norm Coleman’s senate-election appeal are set for June 1, the Minnesota Supreme Court announced in an order (pdf) issued this morning — a schedule that adopts Coleman’s slower-paced proposal rather than Franken’s fast-track plan.  

A man presented as an “ordinary voter” in a New York Times article today about the impending recount in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race has strong ties to the Republican Party and conservative causes that the article does not reveal. Noah Rouen says he told writer Christina Capecchi about his background.

When last heard from on election night, the parallel drama at Political Championship Wrestling found U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman on the ropes and challenger Al Franken’s arm raised in triumph:
Franken nails Coleman with a road sign. He next pulls out a cheese grater and rubs it across Coleman’s forehead. Suave: “CHEESE GRATER! CHEESE GRATER! COLEMAN [...]

Charges are flying that post-election lawsuits, press releases, talking points, and media (un)availabilities are smearing — or worse, interfering in — Minnesota’s election process, and sliming — or worse, intentionally intimidating — the state’s election officials. Setting aside for the moment the current and serious question of whether intimidation tactics are in play, it’s worth hearing out two Minnesota Independent commenters, self-identified election judges both, who say they don’t feel slimed by basic calls for review, recount and investigation.

The man in charge of the recount in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election predicts that come Inauguration Day, the dust will be settled enough for either Norm Coleman or Al Franken to take the oath of office.

Norm Coleman’s razor-thin lead over Al Franken keeps getting even tighter. We’ll update the tally as it changes.

Maybe Norm the Shopper heard about the clearance sale at the Obama campaign’s online store. As of Wednesday, the Coleman for Senate Web site greets visitors with a spare, elegantly designed screen with the word “Victory” against a blue background. It’s a design that mimics the graphics of President-elect Barack Obama’s “Change” motif. (Compare Coleman’s splash screen [...]

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.

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.

Minnesota U.S. Senate candidate Dean Barkley shouldn’t be expecting any gift baskets from Norm Coleman between now and election day. That’s because everybody’s conventional wisdom about the contest — i.e., a strong third-party candidate means six more years for Norm — doesn’t seem to be panning out. In fact, it’s becoming clear that the emergence of Barkley as a factor in the race is disproportionately hurting the incumbent.