Swing State Project

The Swing State Project (which can be found in my Blogroll) posed the question, how do you list the vulnerable races. Minnesota ranks anywhere from fourth to seventh in every list except for the one guy who gave it an 8.

8. Minnesota. If Al Franken would just get over his egotism and step out of the way, this one would rank much higher. Coleman is a savvy politician, slick as they come, and can easily tag Franken with any number of his previous on-air statements, branding him as "too liberal" for the mainstream. I know that Franken, having been a friend of Wellstone's, wants revenge. From an emotional standpoint, I completely understand that . . . but, logically, it's just a bad idea for Franken to run. Sigh.

4. MN: I agree with the comment about Franken, and about Coleman's savviness, but this state is just trending too blue, and the climate is just too bad for Republicans.

Minnesota-(Coleman)- Minnesota is a Democratic leaning state. Coleman is a weak incumbent due to the fact he narrowly won his last Senate Race. Franken and Ciresi are benifitting from Bush's unpopularity. This race is unpredictable.

4. Minnesota- Al Franken is fundraising well and I think will be the Democratic nominee. He also has personal wealth he can spend. If the political enviroment is bad in Minnesota in 2008 Coleman will be in even more trouble.

5)Minnesota- State leans Democratic. The Republican Incumbent is a freshman that narrowly won the last time around.

6. Minnesota. Lets see how Franken handles himself. So far I'm impressed, but are the voters?


My own personal list puts Minnesota definitely in this range. I am quite pessimistic and believe us to be more towards the seventh than the fourth, mainly for the same reasons as the guy who ranked us eighth. Franken has zero business being in the Senate race. He is a great guy, can do a lot for our party and I think he would be a good Senator but I don’t see any compelling reason for why he should be Minnesota’s Senator.

I really hope that he doesn’t scare anyone from the large amounts of money he is raising. The day we choose someone to represent us in an election because of the money they are raising is a very sad day. He can bring in the early money but any other candidate can rake in the dough once they are our torch-bearer. I know I spend a lot of my posts hating on Franken but I just can’t understand how anyone can really believe he should be our candidate. It is so obvious that he is nothing but a carpet bagger. We have amazing DFL’ers here in this state, they are the ones who should be taking out Norm, not some NYC’er.