I'm a delegate to my DFL state senate district convention this Saturday. For you non-Minnesotans, the DFL is the Democrat Farmer-Labor party. (Find out why here.) Delegates to the local state senate district convention will elect delegates to the party's state convention in June. State delegates will determine who the DFL-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate will be. That lucky guy challenges Sen. Norm Coleman this fall.
For about five years, I've been in the Al Franken camp. Al Franken moved back to Minnesota a couple years ago to run against Coleman. I've long admired Al Franken for his humor, his political writing, and passion for progressive politics. To me, he appeared as the best chance to defeat Coleman. He's a good guy, has good positions, would run a vigorous campaign, and be able to raise important campaign funds.So far, he's done a decent job. He's traveled around the state, racked up the endorsements, and is running a professional campaign. But a few things have given me pause. His Clinton-style caution when it comes to taking specific positions has made me nervous, even as I understand the rationale behind the strategy. He has done okay in debates with the other two DFL candidates, Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, but no slam dunks.
Two recent developments make me question Franken's electability. First, has been the now overplayed incident at Carleton College, where Franken allegedly mocked and intimidated a college Republican who was being civil to him. Franken even refused to shake the Republican's hand. I know, I know, most of us would probably like to mock and shame a college Republican here or there--but it's not something you do as a candidate for Senate in Minnesota.
This week, news emerged that Franken's family business, Al Franken, Inc, has been fined $25,000 by the state of New York for failure to pay workers comp premiums for nearly 4 years. The fine was levied in 2006 but only this week was a commitment made to pay it.
I don't think things like this should disqualify candidates, but it doesn't encourage me. That's a serious thing, to not pay workers comp for several years and to ignore the fine. It is a few times worse than unpaid parking tickets or late campaign finance filings. The question for DFLers is whether these are isolated items, or if we can expect more from Al Franken. Minnesotans want their politicians to be nice and personally responsible people.
So, the convention is just two days away and I'm undecided. Issue-wise, I'm equally split between the candidates. Even the MPR candidate selector gave me candidate scores pretty close together: Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (22.0), Mike Ciresi (21.0), Al Franken (20.0), Norm Coleman (0.0).
I'm not enthusiastic about Ciresi. Haven't we elected enough lawyers to Congress? In all seriousness, I've been unimpressed with his debate performances and what I would call significant pandering. He's also lost statewide office once and I don't know why he would win this time.
When Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer ran for Congress in 2006 in the 5th district, I was very dismissive of him. I thought of it at the time as an exercise in vanity. Still, he did very well in the party endorsement contest that Keith Ellison ultimately won. I like the fact that he doesn't shy away from issues like reproductive rights and GLBT issues.
Still, I think his approach on free trade is antiquated (as are both Obama's and Clinton's pandering in recent weeks). I'm a person who has risked arrest to try to stop an IMF-World Bank meeting. Trade agreements matter to real people around the globe. But we need to look forward, not backward. NAFTA is a done deal. Free trade is where we are today. What we need to work on now is global standards and agreements to environmental, consumer protection, social safety net, and labor practices, and find ways for the more free movement of people across sovereign borders. Borders should be just as open to people and ideas as they are to products.So what should I do? I'll be thinking and researching over the next day. It's possible I might go into that convention Saturday still undecided.
3 comments:
What the blog-o-sphere needs to understand is that Minnesota is still in acaucus / primary process and therefore has many possible democrats thatcould take on norm Coleman and win. As loyal democrats we owe it to ourcountry to properly vet our candidates and let the best go forward in ourprocess. Refusing to talk about any faults of even one candidate jeopardizethe whole party. Al Franken has a well-proven history of turning his backon facts and spinning things in his favor: Al Franken has flip-flopped on the Iraq war, read the direct quotes on thispage: http://www.ciresiforsenate.com/interface/frankenAttackImg/page2Large.jpg He has a history of outbursts and tantrums,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncemI5vxJ5g, that are hardly the conduct of acandidate for high office. He has a pattern of questionable business practices,http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2006/01/did-al-frankens-outrageous-demands.html , only highlighted by the last few days issue of failing to pay workscomp for a few years and now paying a large fine.http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/16334106.html All cemented together by the quote, ³ No, I would be crushed by the sense ofresponsibility, voting on whether to authorize the use of force is a bigdecision, especially on a close call. I don¹t know if I could handle that.That¹s what you¹re doing when you elect someone: You¹re giving them theopportunity to handle it.² What does it tell you when a candidate for the US Senate says he would becrushed by the responsibility of the job if he where elected? I know ourparty can do better then this guy! All things considered Al Franken should hardly be the progressives firstchoice in the MN senate election. If you look at the poll numbers, Franken,Ciresi, and Jack are all with in the margin of error of each other onbeating Coleman but with Franken having almost 50% unfavorable while theother two are around 4-7%. This leads to the conclusion that Franken cannotappeal to the middle and thus he will cause a defeat for the DemocraticParty. Its time people stopped caring so much for the man they just heardon the radio and start thinking about the well being of their party more.It should tell you something when almost 80% of Franken¹s money has beenraised out of state! What would you rather have, a good fight to get Frankeninto office that would concentrate on his questionable past, or a fight withCiresi or Jack concentrating on Coleman¹s poor record. This isn¹t a callto rally around Franken because he is the only democrat standing; it¹s acall to look at the other candidates to prevent another McGovern Eagletonaffair. Check out:http://www.jackforsenate.org/http://www.ciresiforsenate.com/
I'm conservative but I still take interest in the DFL primary and can't agree with your analysis more. Franken was looking good for a while, but it's a long road from comedian to politician and it'll be interesting to see how he handles it. I think he'll win the primary, if for no other reason than his leads in endorsements and fundraising. But he's got his work cut out for him.
Very good analysis.
Thanks for the comments. I generally like Franken and might end up supporting him, but his performance as a candidate begs improvement. We'll see.
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