Franken wins big in Eagan/Burnsville

US Senate Candidate Al Franken won the lion's share of delegates at this Saturday's SD 38 DFL Convention. Subcaucuses that named Franken as a candidate were awarded 10 of SD 38's 17 state delegates. Subcauses that named the other two candidates in the race Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer were awarded 1 delegate each. The remaining five delegates were awarded to subcaucuses that were uncommitted (3) or named a presidential candidate (Clinton-1, Obama-1.)

Here is the list of subcaucuses, the number of votes each one got and the resulting number of state delegates.

Subcaucus	Votes	State Delegates
Uncommitted, Environment, Education	55	3
Franken, Health Care, Veterans	39	2
Franken, Obamaesque Issues	31	2
Franken, Education	23	2
Obama, End The War	21	1
Ciresi Victory '08	19	1
Clinton, Climate Change, Care	19	1
Franken, First Timers	18	1
Franken, Energy & Environment	18	1
Franken, Labor	18	1
Franken, Peace, Domestic Partnership	18	1
Nelson Pallmeyer, Stop Global Warming	18	1

Disclosure: I was a delegate to the SD 38 Convention and was in the "uncommitted" caucus.

Is Franken really the "Front Runner" for the DFL US Senate endorsement?

This fall it's Al Franken vs. Norm Coleman -- Mike Ciresi and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer just doesn't have the support to win the DFL US Senate endorsement. That appears to be the proclamation from the legacy media based upon Survey USA's KSTP sponsored poll and the TV station's online post about the poll. According to KSTP Franken is the "front runner" But if you take some time to dig into the numbers, and know a little bit about the political process, you know that outcome is far from certain.

First, the poll was done among Republicans, Independents and Democrats. Republicans and Independent voters don't determine the DFL endorsement, Democrats do. And when you look at just the Democratic voters numbers, Al Franken pulls 79%, and Mike Ciresi 75%. That's closer than the margin of error in the poll (when you narrow the sample to just Democrats).

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer polls just 58% among Democrats, but there are nearly twice as many undecideds (18%) as there are in matchups between Franken/Ciresi and Colman. That's not surprising since Nelson-Pallmeyer's campaign is not very well known in the general public. Adding in just half of those undecideds puts Nelson-Pallmeyer just a few percentage points behind Franken and Ciresi.

Second, it is now delegates, not voters, who are going to determine who the DFL US Senate nominee is going to be. All three candidates have agreed to abide by the endorsement, which means there's only going to be one major candidate running in the DFL primary this September. This poll was done among the general public not delegates.

The three DFL candidates are better known to the delegates than the general public. And as noted above, even among the general population of Democrats, the race is too close to call or even a three-way race.

So for KSTP to use this poll to call Franken the "front runner" is not based on fact, not based on their own poll, and takes a real stretch of the imagination... or just a lack of attention to detail to do. KSTP should stick to the facts on this one -- that is Franken does better in this poll in a head-to-head matchup with Coleman than Ciresi or Nelson-Pallmeyer do -- and leave deciding who the DFL "front runner" is to the delegates.

Watch The UpTake-O-Meter Measure The DFL U.S. Senate Debate

Also posted at TheUpTake.org
Probably the most significant aspect of Tuesday's US Senate DFL debate at Minneapolis Roosevelt High School was not the candidates, but the audience. With the election still nearly a year away, the debate drew enough people to fill the auditorium's lower level. A good portion of those in the audience were there to back Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. His campaign volunteers and supporters had packed the auditorium.

Nelson-Pallmeyer does not have as much name recognition or money as Mike Ciresi and Al Franken. But he is apparently strongly organized in Minneapolis where he unsuccessfully ran for the 5th Congressional District DFL endorsement in 2006.

By now, if you've watched a couple of DFL U.S. Senate debates you can recite the candidate's stump speeches from memory. For those who want substance on last Tuesday's debate please check out an excellent text summary from DJ at www.idonthateamerica.com

If you want style, we give you something different. A few quick jokes from moderator and DFL State Chair Brian Melendez and then The UpTake-O-Meter (patent pending) on the response each candidate got when introduced to a crowd of about 700 people.



This is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer's backyard and "Back Jack Pack" which jammed the auditorium let everyone know that.
Video: Greg Skog Text, editing and photos: Michael McIntee

Video: Al Franken Blasts Sen Norm Coleman For Lack Of Iraq Oversight

“This is Norm Coleman’s war as much as it is George Bush’s” — US Senate Candidate Al Franken.

In this video,Al Franken connects the dots between Senator Norm Coleman’s campaign contributions from defense contractor Halliburton to Coleman’s lack of oversight in the Iraq war and ultimately the deaths of US military personnel. This was shot on Wednesday as Franken stumped for support at the DFL SD 38 Family Picnic in Eagan, MN

Franken Outraises Ciresi and Coleman

If fund raising is the measure of how a candidate is doing, Al Franken wins the second quarter. He out raised both incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman and his DFL rival Mike Ciresi. Here are the initial numbers from Franken press secretary Jess McIntosh:

Total raised: $1,914,351
Avg. donation: $65.10
Total contributors (cycle to date): 36,297

By contrast Coleman raised $1.5 million and Ciresi $735,000 according to preliminary reports from their campaign

Coleman still leads in one important figure. Total cash on hand. He has nearly a $4 million war chest to wage his campaign. Franken and Ciresi who have not been fund raising as long have about $2,000,000 and $625,000 respectively.

Franken's campaign emphasized that there have been many donors and 95.7% of them under $100. There has been at least one donation from every county in Minnesota and from each of the 50 States.

In a prepared statement Franken Communications Director Andy Barr said "We made a conscious decision early on to rely on grassroots support to fund our campaign. Today, we've shown that when people come together, they can be even more powerful than the special interests and corporate PACs backing Norm Coleman. And we've shown that Al is a candidate who can bring people together around the progressive values we share."

Other notes about the fund raising from the Franken campaign:
• The average contribution to the campaign in the second quarter was $65.10.
• Nearly 2,000 people who contributed to the campaign in the first quarter, or nearly 20%, made another contribution in the second quarter.
• The campaign received only $5,500 from PACs in the second quarter, including $5,000 from Sen. Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) Prairie PAC and $500 from GMP Political Education League, the PAC of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics, & Allied Workers International Union. In the first quarter, Al received just $15,000 from PACs (including $5,000 from his own Midwest Values PAC), while Sen. Coleman received nearly a third of his total ($450,000) from PACs.