Hernandez joins former legislator Dan Severson and St. Bonafacius City Council member Joe Arwood. Hernandez said his platform includes bringing “moral principles” to government and praised Herman Cain’s 999 tax plan.

“I do not feel comfortable, given the course that we are on, handing to furute generations the current country that we have now,” he said at a press conference Tuesday. “We must restore a political system of moral principle back in America.”

He said “individual life and family” are the the most crucial units of society.

He called for term limits, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution mandating Congress pass a budget, a repeal of health care reform, an end to “unconstitutional wars” and tax reform.

“I like the idea of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan,” he said. “Is it perfect? No, but it’s a start.”

Hernandez last ran for office in one of St. Paul’s Senate districts in 2010, losing to DFL Sen. Dick Cohen.

He was also the Minnesota leader of Somos Republicans, a Latino Republican group. A representative of that group told the Minnesota Independent on Thursday that Hernandez has left the group.

On state issues, Hernandez supports a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“In 2012, Minnesota voters will decide whether to amend the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman,” he wrote on his campaign website. “I believe that government should have a very limited role in marriage. As a result, I support the referendum in that I believe it is best for the people of Minnesota, rather than politicians or activist judges, to decide this important cultural issue.”

He’s also an opponent of abortion rights.

“The right to life is a core principle described both within the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution,” he says. “As your U.S. Senator, I will work to protect the natural right to life from conception until natural death.”

A survey released by Public Policy Polling on Thursday shows that Sen. Amy Klobuchar maintains a formidable lead going into the 2012 election cycle. She maintains a high favorability rating and would best any announced candidates and rumored candidates by large margins, including Minnesota’s presidential duo Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. She’s also increased her lead since the last PPP poll in December.

Klobuchar leads Pawlenty in a hypothetical matchup by 13 points, 54 percent to 41 percent. Against Bachmann, Klobuchar leads 57 to 37 percent. Neither Bachmann nor Pawlenty has expressed an interest in Klobuchar’s seat.

Among candidates who have expressed an interest, Klobuchar would win handily if the election were held today. Against former attorney general candidate Chris Barden, Klobuchar would win 57 to 30 percent and against radio host and State Sen. Dave Thompson, Klobuchar would win 55 to 28 percent.

Dan Severson, the only announced candidate to challenge Klobuchar, would lose by the largest margin, 28 points (56 to 28 percent).

“The fact that Klobuchar earns 54-57% of the vote regardless of her opponent suggests her floor is probably not much lower than that,” PPP said in a release accompanying the poll. “Amy Klobuchar looks like a shoo-in at this point,” added Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

The poll also measured Pawlenty’s and Bachmann’s favorables. Fifty-three percent of Minnesotans viewed Pawlenty unfavorably and 40 percent favorably. Bachmann’s numbers were even worse with 33 percent having a favorable impression of the congresswoman, while 59 percent viewed her unfavorably.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is the most popular U.S. senator, according to surveys by Public Policy Polling. The pollster looked at the approval ratings of 59 senators over the past several months and found Klobuchar with a net favorable rating of 30 percent, well above the second most favorable, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who scored 24 percent.

Klobuchar, who is up for re-election in 2012, had an approval rating of 59 percent compared to 29 percent of Minnesota voters who said they disapproved of her. Sen. Al Franken, a year and a half after being seated following a contentious recount with his predecessor Norm Coleman, garnered just a 3 percent favorable rating with 45 percent approving of his performance as senator and 42 percent disapproving.

Nationwide, Democrats and New England moderate Republicans senators shared the top ten spots. Following Klobuchar (+30) and Brown (+24), were Sens. Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire (+23), Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine (+22), Democrat Barbara Mikulski of Maryland (+22), Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia (+22), Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York (+22), Republican Susan Collins of Maine (+17), Democrat Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico (+16) and Republican John Cornyn of Texas (+15).

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is extremely popular with Minnesotans, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released on Tuesday. Klobuchar bests hypothetical Senate contenders such as Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Sen. Norm Coleman, Reps. Michele Bachmann and Erik Paulsen, as well as Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. She also has a high favorability rating.

According to the poll, Klobuchar has an approval rating of 59 percent, with 29 percent of respondents rating her performance as unfavorable.

In hypothetical matchups, she beats Pawlenty 53 to 43 percent, Coleman 54 to 40 percent, Paulsen 52 to 34 percent, and Emmer 56 to 38 percent.

She beat Bachmann by a large margin, 56 to 39 percent. The poll found Bachmann’s unfavorable to be very high, with 51 percent viewing her unfavorably and only 37 percent viewing her favorably.

Here’s a portion of Franken’s full remarks:

What frustrates me is that I’ve heard these deficit and debt numbers serve as an excuse for not passing an extension of unemployment benefits. We’ve been unable to get cloture on these extensions, despite spending weeks of the Senate’s time on this matter and despite numerous attempts. Opponents say, our deficits must be addressed, our debt can’t grow any larger. We’ve got to draw a line in the sand, and insist that these benefits be fully paid for.

This is troubling to me for two reasons. First, because these deficits aren’t new and many of my colleagues seem to have suddenly become aware of them only a year and a half ago. More importantly, I’m troubled because one of the biggest threats to our long-term deficits is a double-dip recession and the stunting of our nation’s economic growth. And this short-sightedness is not only jeopardizing our short-term economic recovery and our future economic health-it’s also causing us to abandon the real and urgent needs of families at home in our states.

[...]

So, to my colleagues who refuse to enact anything that adds a penny to the deficit, how else can I convince you? Short-term deficits during a recession are acceptable. In fact, many of the conservative economists advising Republican presidents and presidential candidates have said they are “prudent,” and even “good!” When we distinguish between short and long-term deficits, we start to paint a different picture.

The court also set dates and deadlines for Norm Coleman’s appeal of an election-contest court decision that Al Franken won Coleman’s old U.S. Senate seat. Coleman’s appeal brief is due April 30. Franken’s reply is due May 11, to which Coleman must reply by May 15.

The order removes any doubt that the state’s high court would accept Coleman’s petition to appeal the special three-judge panel’s ruling that the former senator is still 312 votes short of the total votes amassed by the former comedian. Approximately 2.9 million Minnesotans cast ballots in the race. 

It also quashes hopes and predictions that Minnesota might have a second U.S. Senator seated by Memorial Day. One expert has speculated that the state Supreme Court justices might take two to three weeks to rule after hearing oral arguments. 

A minor order issued yesterday in the case was signed by only five of the court’s justices, signaling that as with earlier high-court decisions, only those who did not serve on the State Canvassing Board (which oversaw the statewide hand recount in the race) will deliberate on Coleman’s appeal.

Yesterday’s order also suggested that justices who made financial contributions to the candidates before joining the bench — even to Coleman’s 2008 campaign — won’t recuse themselves from considering the appeal.

In the article, “Minnesota Senate Rivals Dig In for Recount Battle,” reporter Christina Capecchi (who also writes for MinnPost), identifies Noah Rouen only as a 34-year-old who “swore off political talk on a pheasant hunt last weekend.” When he and his buddies heard of the now-legendary (and debunked) 32-ballots-in-a-car-trunk story, Capecchi writes, “They could not help but hatch a conspiracy theory.”

One reason Rouen might be given to such theories about votes favoring Democrat Al Franken is that Democrats accused him of participating in a conspiracy to distribute false campaign materials against Franken last summer. In a complaint — later dismissed — to the state Office of Administrative Hearing, DFL Party chair Brian Melendez named Rouen along with two other individuals and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace as being behind a television ad that made charges against Franken related to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The complaint says Rouen was a delegate to this year’s Republican National Convention (RNC) and for two years was a staff member for former U.S. Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn. Rouen’s biography at the Web site of his current employer — a St. Paul-based media relations firm called Public Affairs Co., where he is vice president — describes his service to Grams as a staffer and press secretary. Public Affairs Co. rebranded itself as GOP Convention Strategies in a marketing push timed to the RNC.

In an interview with the Minnesota Independent, Rouen said that he worked for Grams’ campaign as well from 1999 to 2000. He said while that level of partisan activity is in his past — he called work for the “Vote Yes Minnesota” referendum campaign his most partisan activity this year — he “makes no bones” about being a Republican or having voted for U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

Rouen said he gave Capecchi, who found him via a Facebook group called “Looking for Coleman Ballots,” his whole background during a 30-minute interview two days ago. He said he was surprised to be identified only as a pheasant hunter in the Times article, and in fact was somewhat surprised to be included at all, given how the ballots-in-the-trunk story has since “evolved.” (On Minnesota Public Radio today, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie reiterated that the story was false, calling for those who started the rumor to speak up.)

Capecchi did not return phone messages and e-mails from the Minnesota Independent. The New York Times also has not responded to an email.

Rouen’s political background isn’t hard to trace. In 2002, he ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 60A but was defeated by DFLer Margaret Anderson Kelliher, now speaker of the House. That year he also served as spokesman for the Rod Grams Minnesota Victory Club, a political action committee formed to aid candidates in local races. A frequent writer of letters on newspaper opinion pages, Rouen had a letter that ridiculed Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., the Democratic vice presidential candidate, published in the Oct. 31 edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Rouen is featured at the end of the second half of the Times article, which contains a series of quotes from political officials and commentators that are introduced by this sentence:

As the recount nears, brickbats from the candidates, their surrogates and ordinary voters are coming fast and furious.

After quotes from mainly conservative sources — itself a point of complaint by Media Matters (referenced by MnIndy on Friday) — Capecchi concludes her article with this:

Noah Rouen, 34, and his buddies swore off political talk on a pheasant hunt last weekend, but when they heard that 32 absentee ballots favoring Mr. Franken were not counted until days later, having been locked in a Minneapolis elections office, they could not help but hatch a conspiracy theory.

On Tuesday morning, Mr. Rouen logged onto Facebook and updated his status: “Noah is looking for Coleman ballots in his car.”

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 IS BADLY BUSTED OPEN!” Franken pulls a ladder from underneath the ring and clock Coleman with it. Franken grabs a garbage can and drops toe holds Coleman onto it. Cover. Two count. Coleman staggers back up and Franken knocks him right back out with a steel chair. Crowd: “HOLY S@#$#… HOLY S@#$#.” Franken puts Coleman on top of the ladder and climbs up on the corner turnbuckle. Franken leaps off the turnbuckle and crushes Coleman on the metal ladder. Crowd: “HOLY S@#$#… HOLY S@#$#.” Franken covers. 1…2…3.

New blow-by-blow reportage today has Norm and Al brawling in the parking lot afterward, with the promise of a grudge rematch set for Nov. 25. And you missed the three-way action involving former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley that ramped up when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and SNLster Tina Fey joined the fray.

You could call the writing wrestler porn, but that four-letter word’s already tapped out in this race. The scribes at Political Championship Wrestling prefer to call it PHEW!: Political Hardcore Extreme Wrestling. To get all elitist-high brow on their asses, it reads a bit like an opera libretto that got shredded together with a Wolf Blitzer transcript.

I am not at all insulted … I try to be understanding of why people feel suspicious. …  I encourage everyone to just chill … I want all votes to be counted properly …

Stephanie wrote:

I am a head election judge in an Anoka County precinct and I am not at all insulted by the requirement for a statewide recount. It might feel different if only certain counties or precincts were picked out for a recount, but in an election with < .01% variance a manual recount of every ballot seems like a reasonable precaution.

It is my experience that virtually all election judges are doing their best to ensure that all election laws are followed to the best of our ability, but we don’t dispute the obvious — that neither human officials nor our voting technology are perfect. I suspect that the vote totals for both candidates will go up as a result of a manual recount, simply because there are a certain number of ballots in which the voter’s intent will be obvious to human counters but not to the optical scanner.

I know that some voters are suspicious of elections officials and after the disaster of the 2000 Florida election I try to be understanding of why people feel suspicious. I don’t, however, think that Ms. Janacek is expressing honest concern. This is her usual MO of disingenuously spreading BS when she actually knows better.

I am pleased by the way the Secretary of State has handled himself so far. I encourage everyone to just chill and let the process provided for by our laws be carried out. It will be carefully supervised both by those entrusted by law and by representatives of both parties so there is little opportunity for anything to happen other than a higher degree of certainty.

Marie wrote:

Isn’t it interesting that the Republicans sound like they are against due process (the recount) and against state rights (it is a MN law to recount under .5 percent). The votes will fall where they may.

I am an election judge as well. I want all votes to be counted properly and at this minimal difference, it’s imperative that it be done by hand. The process will start about Nov 19th and take as long as necessary. I think the Republican anger is partially because they were out spent this whole election cycle. Normally it’s the Democrats who are short on cash. . . this time it was the Republicans.

(Note that these comments came in Nov. 9, before the latest round of charges and counter-charges.)

MPR’s Gary Eichten: “Will we have a U.S. Senator seated in Washington on Jan. 20?”

Ritchie: “At least one.”

MPR: “What about two?”

Ritchie: ”Gary, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say, ‘Yes.’”

Current vote count tracked here. Note: The Senate’s swearing-in is set for Jan. 6, not Jan. 20.