Read a Pacific Northwest, liberal perspective on world, national, and local politics. From majestic Redmond, Washington - the Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Al Franken declares victory in Minnesota

After two months of counting and recounting in Minnesota, we finally have a final tally that puts Al Franken 225 votes ahead of Norm Coleman.

Franken's victory doesn't mean that Coleman has given up. To the contrary:
The state Canvassing Board certified final results this afternoon in Minnesota's marathon U.S. Senate race, but that won't end the battle between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman, whose Senate term ended on Saturday.

Moments after the board certified that Franken had eked out 225 more votes than Coleman, attorneys for Coleman said they would file a lawsuit within 24 hours.

[...]

Coleman forces said they were mindful of the consequences of a prolonged election contest, but said that the results were "invalid and unreliable."
Unfortunately for democracy, Coleman is not accepting the outcome without a fight. He's pulling a Dino Rossi and filing a lawsuit contesting the election. Although his term in the Senate has expired, he still contends that he should be one of Minnesota's two senators.

In addition, Senate Republicans are threatening to block any attempt to seat Senator-elect Franken. This would cause chaos and make it difficult for the Senate to act on President Barack Obama's agenda.

Although Minnesota votes reliably Democratic in presidential elections, Democrats running for statewide office are often pitted against populist opponents from the Minnesota Independence Party as well as Republicans. The Independence Party enjoys major party status along with the DFL and the Republicans.

This results in the progressive vote sometimes getting split in statewide elections between DFL and the Independence candidates, resuilting in close elections when there is a strong Independence candidate.

This year, perennial Senate hopeful Dean Barkley received fifteen percent of the vote, causing the race between Franken and Coleman to be extremely close.

It's probably unrealistic to expect the Republicans to respect the choice of the people of Minnesota, but we wish they would anyway.

Senator-elect Franken's peers in the freshman class of Democratic Senators are Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Mark Warner of Virginia, Kay Hagan of North Carolinia, Mark Begich of Alaska, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Mark Udall of Colorado, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, plus Michael Bennet of Colorado, who was selected by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter to replace Ken Salazar. Three new Democratic Senators will also eventually represent Illinois, Delaware, and New York.

We wish them all the best and hope they will serve their constitutents well.

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