Posted on 12/02/2008 6:54:48 AM PST by MplsSteve
With 91 percent of ballots recounted, Norm Coleman leads by 344 votes in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race. Coleman held a 215-vote lead over Franken after Election Day.
Between now and Nov. 4, Coleman has lost 2,369 votes, and Al Franken has lost 2,498 votes.
By Friday, all of the state's 87 counties should be done with their collective review of 2.9 million ballots.
Dec. 16, the canvassing board will gather to rule on 2,876 ballots challenged by Franken and 3,067 ballots challenged by Coleman.
While it looks like Coleman is leading, it's hard to say how secure his spot is. That's because the almost 6,000 combined challenges have skewed each candidate's running total.
Do you know anything about this race?
Coleman not only had to contend with an Obama avalanche in Minnesota, he faced four separate opponents:
1. Franken — backed by DSCC cash
2. Barkley - a Ventura handmaiden who siphoned votes disproportionately from Coleman (some 500,000 votes) and kept Franken in the game
3. Libertarian candidate
4. Constitutional party candidate
The liberatarian and constitutional party candidates took another 16,000 votes from Norm.
If Norm had had a head-to-head against Franken, he would have won by 54-46 or better.
I wish there were a runoff in Minnesota as there is in Georgia; Coleman would win handily.
Nearly every vote for Barkley would otherwise have gone to Coleman, not to Franken.
The criticisms of Norm are without merit. He deserved reelection for exposing the fraudulent UN oil-for-food program alone.
Doesn’t matter. Reid will steal the seat for Franken siting “Republican voter fraud.” People, you have to get real about the depth of Liberal evil. They will do ANYTHING to win. 42 Repub seats would be a problem in Chairman Barry’s Red March.
There’s probably another 345 Franken votes locked up in someone’s trunk in St Louis county.
I especially agree with your last sentence.Thank you for this information.Clears the picture some.
You are wrong about that. Reid is giving nothing but hot air to try to intimidate local officials. Reid doesn’t want Franken in his caucus, Klobuchar certainly doesn’t want him, and Obama doesn’t want him, either. They are all just going through the motions. There will be Hell to pay from coast to coast if Franken is seated if Norm has won the recount and the courts certify his victory.
Yeah well Franken is appealing to the Senate which will probably rule in his favor.
“All you principled conservatives who sat it out...I hope you are all satisfied”
I’m from Tennessee and I did not “sit it out”, but you really have it backwards
It was the unprincipled POLICIES of Bush, advised by Rove along with the unprincipled House GOP and Senate that caused this. I don’t need to go into all the policy decisions, except to say the conservative movement has been set back years, if not decades.
And BTW, what makes you think that RINO Senators like Snowe, Specter and Collins won’t cross the isle on important votes to give the Rats a fillibuster proof majority on key votes anyway.
I remember reading the observation that the first count is superior to any subsquent recount in one fundamental respect: during the first count, no one knows the outcome, or how many votes need to be “flipped” in order to gain the desired result.
The temptation to “mischief” can’t be dismissed lightly during any such recount.
Encouraging news for sure!
True.. the republican party is so fragmented...
Not only because of Bush's amnesty problem(s)..
and the border guard fiasco..
The fragmenting of the republican party is/was so complete it cannot have been an accident but on purpose and brilliantly carried out.. Almost like by scientific formulaic propaganda.. The pubbies were and are like chickens to a chicken farmer.. clucking happily away as they are plucked and processed.. An awesome display of political farming..
All because the republicans are afraid to excersize the 2nd amendment.. because civil wars are so bloody.. mimic-ing anarchy..
Not totally. When I was called by Norm's campaign in an effort to get me to match the donation I had made six years ago, I told them: "Gee, I'd really like to, but all my spare money is having to go to pay for higher gas prices, thanks to Norm's stupid vote against drilling in ANWAR." Never got another call.
Give it up, Franken! You are defeated.
Looks like a Requiem for Frankenweenie.
Frankenweenie still wants to compete for the World’s Worst Loser award, it appears.
If Norm had had a head-to-head against Franken, he would have won by 54-46 or better.
The fragmenting of the republican party is/was so complete it cannot have been an accident but on purpose and brilliantly carried out.. Almost like by scientific formulaic propaganda.. The pubbies were and are like chickens to a chicken farmer.. clucking happily away as they are plucked and processed.. An awesome display of political farming..
Republicans need to follow the same methodology of taking the heads of democrats one at a time.
That's a very perceptive comment. People here are hyperventilating over nothing. The national blowback against Democrats will be enormous if they try to "steal" an election where the state officials and courts have accorded Coleman the victory.
It's not as though this seat will make the difference between the Republicans and Democrats controlling the Senate. Nor will it determine a "filibuster-proof" majority -- the threshold for that does not run sharply along party lines. Regardless of the Minnesota victor, there will be some issues where enough liberal Republican votes can be attracted to break a filibuster, and other issues where conservative Democrats will refuse to break a filibuster.
What we are seeing is spin-control. Democrats are trying to position themselves as the victims, so they can claim that Republicans are the ones who refuse to count all the votes and obey the will of the people. Minnesota will become ammunition in their continuing effort to make it easier to register and vote without safeguards against fraud or objective standards of ballot-counting. But if the Senate were to flip the outcome, Minnesota would become the rallying cry of Republicans to tighten up the election process. And that would be a much greater loss for the Democrats.
These 'Obama Conservatives' really screwed America over!! I had one lady with an Obama sticker on her SUV (and a Choose Life license plate) said that she got sick of the GOP.
We need to rebuild, but I doubt we will. I think we might split into 2 major parties, so the Dems will be the 'majority' party.
Therein lies my pain.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.