Al Franken Claims Victory In The Minnesota Senate Race
Bet ya thought the 2008 political ballyhoo was dunzo … well, not just yet. Funnyman Al Franken, who has been locked in a grueling and oftentimes bitter recount since the results were tallied on Election Day last month were too close to call, has claimed victory in his bid for one of two Senate seats in the great State of Minnesota. Posting a message on his official website, the Franken campaign proclaims that they are “more confident than ever that Al Franken will be the winner of this election” once the results are officially announced this week. If they are correct, the Democrats will have won 59 Senate seats in Congress:
Claiming a 35 to 50-vote lead over Republican opponent Norm Coleman, former Saturday Night Live regular Al Franken is declaring victory in Minnesota’s contested U.S. Senate seat race. “We are more confident than ever that Al Franken will be the winner of this election,” reads a posting on the Democrat’s Web site. Only not so fast, counters the Coleman campaign. “This process is still a long way form being complete,” the incumbent said in a statement. The Coleman camp insists 100 votes have been double-counted, and has announced that it intends to go to the state Supreme Court to lodge a protest.
LOL. The Democrats may have a tough time winning recounts in Florida but it looks like they may have eaked one out over in Minnesota. The new vote totals are due to be handed over to the Minnesota Canvassing Board and a winner (Franken) should be announced today:
The state Canvassing Board will wait until [Tuesday] to meet again to try to determine a winner in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race between Democrat Al Franken and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Sunday that the delay was caused by the amount of time it is taking to reallocate the 5,000 ballot challenges that were withdrawn by the two men. “We had hoped to finish by Monday,” Ritchie said. Instead, the new vote totals will be presented to the Canvassing Board on Tuesday morning, he said. According to Minneapolis Star Tribune figures, Franken holds a lead over Coleman of 251 votes. That lead is expected to shrink after the 5,000 challenges are tabulated because Franken challenged about 400 more ballots than Coleman. The same day, the state Supreme Court will take up the question of whether more than 100 ballots were counted twice, as Coleman contends.
UGH … altho some sort of announcement may come out of Minnesota today, I think we’re still not quite at a 100% determination just yet. That being said, Franken is in the enviable position of being ahead in votes at this late, late, late stage of the race. At this point, I, too, am pretty confident that Al Franken will be elected officially as the junior Senator from Minnesota. Funny, huh?
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December 23rd, 2008 at 9:34 am
As a liberal-Minnesota resident, I’m absolutely THRILLED Franken is in the lead but based on our local media headlines, there will be no definitive winner until 2009.
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:12 am
Is this a new trend in Hollywood? Instead of going to music, going into politics, I’ll take it. Yay for Franken!
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Yeah, hilarious. Not surprising with votes just magically appearing out of nowhere for Franken. I’m sure now that he’s finally managed to squeak in a slight lead he’d love to claim victory but it isn’t over yet.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Merry Christmas Al Frankencense!
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Hey Trent,
I’m FINALLY feeling well enough to read pink again! Hope you and David have a wonderful holiday week!
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
as a mega-liberal Minnesotan, I really don’t care how he wins, just as long as the dude does. This has been going on for soooo long now.
December 23rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
i’m not even from minnesota, but yayyy democrats! what a prime example of how every vote really does count!
December 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
America’s voting system is so complicated! … Obama needs to bring in a new system for the next election.
December 24th, 2008 at 6:19 am
WOOOOOT!!!