Tag Archives: Al Franken

Every Vote Counts In Minnesota for Al Franken

Democrat Al Franken on Monday emerged on top in the US Senate recount in Minnesota, beating incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. Out of over 2.9 million votes the state’s independent canvassing board certified, the final vote margin Franken won by was 225 votes. Franken now gives the Democrats a 59 to 41 edge in the US Senate.

However as the New York Times reports, Coleman is planning to challenge the results and Franken’s seating in the Senate could be delayed for weeks or months. Funny thing when Republicans are ahead in the vote, they are always urging Democrats to give up. But when they are behind they want to continue the fight and refuse to move on.

Republicans toke a trouncing in this last election. They deserved it. They would be better off regrouping and re-evaluating their out of date positions on many issues than continuing to endlessly protest.

Funny how they are now arguing for open hearings and publication of the stimulus package proposal Obama is proposing. When they were in charge they passed legislation all the time without consulting Democrats and certainly didn’t believe in airing the actual text of what they were trying to pass in advance.

People need to realize the Republicans change to suit the circumstances only as it affects them. Fair play is only required when they are not in charge. The record is there – their moaning is hypocritical. There’s work to be done. Let’s do it and not be sidetracked by Republican tactics that only serve to delay.

Yes let’s open up the process and not be like the Republicans. But don’t be taken in by their phony hypocritical moans that they aren’t be given enough time to review what’s up. They’ve had plenty of time to push their agenda.

And let’s seat Franken. It’s time to get to work and stop being obstructionists.

Senator Stevens Falls Behind in Alaska

The latest vote count puts Democrat Mark Begich ahead of Republican Senator Ted Stevens by 1022 votes. As the Anchorage Daily News reports Stevens is in “grave danger of losing reelection”. They go on to explain:

“More than 90 percent of the votes are now counted, and Friday’s count of absentee and questioned ballots could have been Stevens’ best chance to make a comeback.
That’s because it included all the ballots left from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, where Stevens has enjoyed his most unwavering support.
There are about 24,000 ballots left to be counted, coming from Anchorage, Southeast Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula. The state will tally them all Tuesday.”

As the Fix notes:

“Of the remaining votes, roughly 15,000 are in the Anchorage area (a swing area in the race) and another 8,000 are in the Juneau area, which should be Begich territory.
“The news continues to be positive,” Begich said in a statement released by the campaign tonight. “With the gap widening slightly in our favor today, I feel even more optimistic that when all the ballots are counted next week, we’ll see Alaskans came out to vote for new leadership in Washington, D.C.”

The Stevens/Begich race is one of three races still undecided for US Senate. In Minnesota, Republican Norm Coleman leads Democrat Al Franken by 206 votes. A manual recount is to be done to determine the final results. In Georgia, Republican Saxby Chambless, the incumbent will have a runoff election on Dec. 2, 2008 with Democrat Jim Martin.

Projected Merkley Victory Would Increase Democratic Total to 57 in US Senate

The Oregonian is projecting Democrat Jeff Merkley as the winner in Oregon. Neither candidate is declaring a winner or loser however as the vote total is still close with some 340,000 votes still not counted out of 1.8 million total votes cast. A large number of the uncounted votes are from Melanoma County and likely Democratic voters as a result.

Meanwhile in Minnesota with the vote count done, Democrat Al Franken is losing to Republican Norm Colman, the incumbent by only 720 votes. The race is going into an automatic recount since a difference less than 15,000 represents the 1/2 of 1 % trigger for a recount. Watch here for Al Franken demanding a recount.

Norm Colman has 1,211,616 votes for 42%.
Al Franken has 1,210,895 votes for 41.97%.

The 3rd undecided Senate race in Georgia is headed for a revote in December by the top 2 vote getters because no one got more than 50% required by Georgia law. The Republican Chambless has 49.9% of the vote.

The 4th undecided race is that of Alaska, where Ted Stevens is holding a slight edge over the Democrat Mark Begich.

Other Senate seats Democrats picked up include:

North Carolina where Kay Hagen defeated Senator Elizabeth Dole

New Hampshire where Jeanne Shaheen defeated Senator John Sununu

Colorado where Mark Udall defeated Bob Schaffer

New Mexico where Tom Udall won.

Virginia where Mark Warner won.

It looks like it will be difficult for Democrats to reach a filibuster proof 60 votes. Also included in the Democratic caucus numbers is Independent Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat from Connecticut who actively campaigned with Republican John McCain in his bid to defeat Obama.

Democrats with their current 1 vote majority have been overly tolerant of Lieberman’s turn coat politics, needing his vote to keep control of the Senate. Things may not be so cordial for Lieberman next year when his vote is not necessary to keep control of the Senate.