victory

Al Franken, calling himself “the next senator from Minnesota,” said Monday afternoon he is “ready to go to Washington to get to work just as soon as possible.” But Franken didn’t respond to questions about exactly when he would go to Washington. In a brief statement in which he twice referred to his “victory,” Franken said he hoped Minnesota would continue to be served by two senators “without interruption.”

Minnesota’s recount of its most expensive race ever restarts this morning with only 10 percent of the Nov. 4 ballots left to review, a combined challenged-ballot pile just 260 shy of 5,000, and the gap in the U.S. Senate race standing at 292 votes (advantage: incumbent). But looking past the contest’s record cost, its microscopic margin and the arduous recount process, the Smart Politics blog asserts that if Norm Coleman retains his seat, it will be the first time in Minnesota history that a Republican wins a race for U.S. Senate at the same time (give or take a month or more) that the state goes double digits for a Democrat presidential candidate.

The campaign of Democrat Al Franken today trumpeted net gains during the first day of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election recount even in Republican-leaning parts of the state. “We have reason to be optimistic,” recount attorney Marc Elias told reporters at an afternoon press conference. “We are picking up votes across the state.” The candidate himself — seldom seen locally since recount gears began turning — shared that view, according to communications director Andy Barr. “Al is cautiously optimistic,” Barr said.

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 [...]

“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.