Minnesota's senator, whoever he is, will have a new nick-name

December 23, 9:59 PMSouth St. Paul ExaminerRob Shirk

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The Minnesota Senate recount

Whoever wins the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota will, inevitably, have the nickname of "Landslide".

As we move into the most festive of times at Christmas there are still a number of people gripped with tension, dripping with anticipation as the triple, now double digit numbers are called out. Today the number is 47 in favor of "Landslide" Al Franken. Senator "Landslide" Norm Coleman's camp, of course, figures that it's hot air.

The Nov. 4 election returns showed Coleman leading Franken by 215 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast, a margin of .007 percent. Minnesota law requires a hand recount in any election for federal or state office in which the margin is less than one-half of 1 percentage point. There was no question.

There is a recount, by law and it likely will go on at least until January 6, 2009 when the Minnesota Supreme Court steps in to decide Senator Coleman's contention there were one hundred thirty ballots that were counted twice.

For a more in depth political analysis, not only on the election amd recount itself, but the process of deciding these things, click on Karen Harper's very excellent piece. The Examiner's Birmingham Progressive Politics writer in Birmingham always has an erudite take on situations just like this.

This is an extremely fluid situation and any little burp or sneeze sends a lot of people to their laptops for their e-mails and IM's. It's not as dashing as in the old days (old?) when there would be a mad scramble to the available phones by the press, eager to scoop their rival papers by minutes proclaiming the movement of one vote, today, from 48 to 47, Franken leading by a country mile.

What the difference would be if one or the other gets elected and what it would mean to those of us in South St. Paul is unclear. Stay tuned... and watch out for rocks and debris in the road.