Norm Coleman has just made his appeal more difficult.
Al Franken extended his lead in the Minnesota Senate race to 313 votes Tuesday, after about 350 improperly rejected absentee ballots were added to the ballot pool.
The total is 87 more votes than Franken led by at the beginning of the day and all but assures that Coleman’s current court challenge will fail.
Don't be surprised if the GOPers' appeals and dilatory tactics to last for six years, the entire term of office up for election - as much as the GOP wants to protect one of its own (Coleman), they want to prevent the seating of someone they *despise* - the loudly liberal Franken. They hate him with a fiery passion they once reserved for Hillary Clinton.
- In other ongoing elections news, the race in NY-20 to replace former Congresswoman now Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the U.S. House is still too close to call, with Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco swapping the lead in the race on an almost-hourly basis.
Of course, given that the Reps have a more than 64,000 voter registration advantage in the district, the fact that they didn't win this one in a walkover is something of an embarrassment.
- In IL-05, there is a special election today to select a replacement for former Congressman now White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. That one is expected to stay in the Democratic column, though with the events in NY-20, it may be worth keeping an eye on this one.
Later...
2 comments:
I could care less about the hypothetical embarassment of the Republican Party as a result of Tedisco not squashing his opposition. I (and most Americans) are rooting for We the People, not against Them the Republicans.
I'm sure they will appeal it all the way up to the Supreme Court if they can.
However I doubt if those appeals would take six years. The pace this has been moving through the Minnesota courts, if not exactly a race, is fast enough that I'm sure this will be done before the next general election.
On top of which Coleman himself may eventually have future political ambitions (to run for a rematch, or eventually for Governor.) If he drags it out too long he may end up like Dino Rossi-- the Republican who wore his support thin in Washington by pressing his case so long that the electorate got tired of him and his sour grapes-- so last year he ran for a rematch and let's just say that by a month or so before the vote it was clear that no recount would be needed.
In fact, if Pawlenty (who squeaked by 47-46 percent the last time) decides that his Presidential ambitions are better served by running as a former Governor than risking a campaign-ending loss, then the Governor's race could open up next year-- and if so then Coleman may have to think real hard about how much personal political capital he will want to waste to keep this going.
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