Minnesota

Last week I posted a list of states slated to gain and lose congressional seats in the upcoming election. While doing that post, my inner geek had me focusing on the numbers and I totally missed this part:

Minnesota (-1): Open seat in 2010; state Senate 46 D, 21 R; state House 87 D, 47 R

Luckily TPM picked up on that loss and is now wondering if that’s why Michele Bachmann has stopped her anti-census talk:

The state of Minnesota could be on the verge of losing a House seat after 2010 -- and interestingly enough, it's been a while since we heard Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) talk about refusing to participate in the Census.

Last year, Bachmann repeatedly said she would defy the Census by not completely filling out the information on the forms, but would instead only give the number of people in her household. She said that Census data was used to conduct the 1940's Japanese-American internment, and warned that the government was seeking to gather information about people's mental health. But as far as we can tell, her last anti-Census public statement was in August.

The largest newspaper in Minnesota, the Star-Tribune, is calling on the state's citizens to vigorously participate in the Census. The key issue here is that according to current population estimates, Minnesota is right on the cusp of losing one of its eight seats in Congress, and will be in a close competition with Missouri, Texas and California for that district. The Strib points out that "Minnesota traditionally has had one big advantage -- the cooperation of its civic-minded citizens."

The Star-Tribune points out that if Minnesota does lose a seat then Bachmann’s district would most likely be effected:

It's ironic that a Minnesota member of Congress, Republican Michele Bachmann, went so far last summer to declare her intention to only partially complete her census forms, and to suggest reasons for others not to comply with the census law. If Minnesota loses a congressional seat, Bachmann's populous Sixth District could be carved into pieces. She likely would have to battle another incumbent to hang on to her seat. We've noticed that her anticensus rhetoric has lately ceased. We hope she got wise: Census compliance is not only in Minnesota's best interest, but also her own.

That would be the sweetest of ironies. We really need Bachmann to take to the airwaves, maybe on Hardball again, and get asked about her war on the census. Is she still wanting people to not fill out the paperwork?

Even if she doesn’t get questioned on it again, the damage is done. If Minnesota ends up losing a seat and Bachmann has to fight to stay in Congress through a new district, then you can expect any opponent, Republican or Democrat, to point out that Bachman’s dangerous rhetoric very well could have cost Minnesota a say in Congress. Yes the census could be the end of Bachmann.

Now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Al Franken there is a lot of expectation that Governor Tim Pawlenty will sign the certification and Al will be on his way to the Senate. One problem though:

Pawlenty, a Republican, has said he would sign the certificate if ordered to do so by the court. The court's ruling stopped short of explicitly ordering the governor to sign the document, saying only that Franken was "entitled" to it.

I could see this being the very kind of bullshit technicality a Republican would use to try and keep Franken out of the Senate. We are in an era of seeing Republican presidential front runners doing very stupid things, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Pawlenty isn’t next. Not signing the certificate would be the very kind of stupid thing I am talking about.

I guess most of this will depend on what Coleman says in about 5 minutes.

UPDATE:

Coleman has just congratulated “Senator Al Franken” and said he will live by the decision. Sounds like he is giving in – FINALLY!

There is a growing movement out there for Norm Coleman to throw in the towel, and it’s not just limited to the right. Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor for the National Review and right wing pundit writes a simple one line post regarding Coleman:

I think it's time for him to give up this fight.

Scott Johnson from Powerline has a much more verbose article, which also appears on the National Review,  about the entire recount and concludes the following:

And I don’t think it can exactly be said that he (Franken) won the election fair and square. Indeed, I can’t find a single good thing to say about him except that he didn’t steal the election

While that is kind of a sinister statement, it pretty much sums it up by saying Coleman is done.

If Coleman continues the fight he is going to not only hurt himself, but also his own party. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, is considered a front runner for the GOP in 2012. Now he might have to make a very tough decision – certify the election for Franken, or not. If he does he will certainly upset party insiders, and that hurts his primary chances. If he doesn’t he will risk any chance at winning a general election, already a battle against a highly admired incumbent President.

But Coleman is also committing political suicide. He should take this chance and be the statesman. Bow out of the race and then plan a rerun, or even run for governor – chances are the seat will be vacated. But the longer Norm continues this fight and deprives Minnesota of a Senator, the harder his chances of a political comeback become.

Norm is now in a lose-lose situation, so he does need to do the right thing. Don’t listen to people like John Cornyn, who only worries about building his numbers in the Senate, but rather bow out. The race is over and he lost. Time to move on.

Norm Coleman sued and that ended up giving Franken a bigger lead than before:

Democrat Al Franken today extended his lead over Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota's U.S. Senate election, after the counting of about 350 formerly rejected absentee ballots this morning.

Franken captured 198 of the ballots, while Coleman took 111. The ballots added 87 votes to Franken’s recount lead, enlarging his margin over Coleman to 312.

The result makes it even more likely that, barring an unforeseen circumstance, Franken will prevail in the election lawsuit that Coleman filed in January to contest the Democrat's 225-vote recount lead. The three-judge panel presiding over the case has not said when it will issue a final decision.

Of course the Republican still hate democracy and will continue to deprive the citizens of Minnesota from their full representation in the U.S. Senate. At this point Franken should be certified and seated. If the courts rule something else down the road, then fine, make a switch, but right now the only ones suffering from this are the people of Minnesota.

It sure sounds like it:

Last session's senior senator from Minnesota Norm Coleman, still battling Al Franken to be seated in the Senate, has taken a paid job as a consultant to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which harshly attacked Obama last fall, its executive director, Matt Brooks, said.

Coleman will join the group as a "consultant and strategic advisor," and will also travel the country fundraising on the group's behalf, Brooks said.

"It's an opportunity for him to, now that he's got some down time on his hands, to really help us while this case is being adjudicated," Brooks said. "He hasn't given up at all" on retaking the Minnesota seat.

Since Coleman is now seeking new employment, perhaps we can go ahead and seat Franken today.

No one wants you to be senator anymore!

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday rejected Republican Norm Coleman's request to count an additional 654 rejected absentee ballots in his weeks-old Senate showdown with Democrat Al Franken.

The ruling clears the way for the state Canvassing Board to certify results showing Franken the winner after the Supreme Court said the issue is best settled in a post-count lawsuit.

Coleman's attorneys have said they're likely to sue if he loses the recount, meaning it could be weeks more before the outcome is final.

Al Franken is now a Senator. Republicans need to stop dragging their feet, walking with their chins on their chests and allow Franken to be seated. Or is it the Republicans are willing to let one of our states go without full representation into the next Congress?

Al Franken is now the projected winner of the Minnesota Senate race, which will us to 59 Democrats in the Senate.

Looks like the Republican attempts at not counting all votes just got squashed:

Al Franken received a potentially major boost towards his hopes of becoming Senator on Friday, when Minnesota state officials ruled that absentee ballots rejected because of clerical or administrative errors should, in the end, be counted.

The decision by the state canvassing board -- which was unanimous -- is, essentially, an official request for county officials to go back and count the wrongfully rejected absentee votes. This process has already begun in many counties and could portend sizeable gains for Franken.

The Democratic challenger has spent the past few weeks demanding that the state review the approximately 1,500 absentee ballots that they contend were unlawfully dismissed. Many of these votes have come from traditionally Democratic locales where, for one reason or another, voters are more likely to make clerical errors when completing their ballots.

I bet old Norm Coleman is pissed right about now.

That’s what Norm Coleman’s lead has dwindled to in the Minnesota recount. That’s with 46% of the votes counted and the challenged ballots still awaiting their examination next month.

I really want to see a Senator Franken. Think of how much fun CSpan will be then:

According to data just released by the Minnesota Secretary of State, Al Franken has gained a net of 43 votes on the first day of that state's recount process. Norm Coleman had a lead of 215 voters over Franken in Minnesota's certified, pre-recount tally; that margin is now 172 votes.

Minnesota reports that it has thus far re-counted 15.49 percent of its ballots. If the first day's results are indicative of the pace that the candidates will maintain throughout the recount process, Franken would gain a net of 278 votes over Colmean, giving him a narrow victory. For any number of reasons, however, the results reported thus far may not be indicative of future trends.

Nate goes on to say that there are still the more Democratic strongholds to be counted and those could come out in our favor. Talk about a nail biter.