In Minnesota, three candidates vie for senator

October 9, 1:04 AMCongress ExaminerIgor Derysh

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Congress Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Image courtesy of Minnesota Public Radio

The Minnesota race has been an incredibly close one with incumbent up-and-coming Republican Norm Coleman defending his seat against former comedian turned talk show host turned politician Al Franken. The race then got even more intense when Independent Dean Barkley jumped into the race.

Barkley, founder of the Minnesota Independence Party, is now making a dent in the polls, showing around 13% support. The third-party candidate is receiving votes from both parties but is believed to be more of a threat to Franken.

Despite Barkley's entry into the race, Franken has taken his largest lead of the campaign in the last couple weeks with the most recent two polls showing him up by anywhere from four to nine percent.

Meet the Candidates

Norm Coleman (R): The incumbent first term Senator and former mayor is running with a 53% approval rating, not a good place to be if you are the incumbent. Coleman sits on four Senatorial committees and four sub-committees. Coleman is a fairly moderate conservative who barely squeezed out a win against former Vice President Walter Mondale in his last election. This time Coleman will have to eek out a win against a former Saturday Night Live cast member.

Al Franken (D): Franken is a former comedian, actor, author and radio talk show host for Air America Radio. In February of 2007, Franken decided to add politician to his resume. He easily won the Democratic nomination for Senate but has had a hard time receiving the full backing of Democratic voters, much less independent ones. Franken has had a lot of help with his fundraising, being able to go toe to toe with incumbent Norm Coleman and has only recently been able to break open a lead against the heavy favorite Norm Coleman.

Dean Barkley (I): Barkley is a long-time player in Minnesota politics. Having started out as an activist for the Minnesota Reform Party, Barkley had three unsuccessful runs at the House and the Senate. His big success came when he chaired Jesse Ventura's campaign for Governor, helping to lead the former wrestler from obscurity to a November win. Ventura appointed Barkley to the Senate in 2002 to fill in for the late Paul Wellstone. Barkley held that seat for all of three months before being replaced by the elected Norm Coleman. Barkley is as independent as independents go but is expected to receive more Democratic votes than Republican ones. As of now, it appears that he is mostly getting the support of those who were not going to vote either of the two main candidates. There is a lot of them.