Franken wins?

The tag on the Drudge Report earlier this week read “Franken wins,” referring to Al Franken’s victory in Tuesday’s DFL (Democratic) primary for the right to face incumbent Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman in November. Franken faced token opposition in the primary, mostly from Priscilla Lord Faris. Faris is the daughter of the formerly prominent Minnesota Attorney General and federal judge Miles Lord. But Faris was herself previously unknown as a public figure and was able to run essentially no campaign against Franken. Faris had a booth at the Minnesota State Fair and a few television ads immediately preceding the primary.

It seems to me that the results show remarkable weakness on Franken’s part. He was able to garner only 65 percent of the vote in the DFL primary. (The statewide results are available here.) As Michael Brodkorb points out, Franken actually lost four of Minnesota’s 87 counties to Faris. Results elsewhere also show pockets weakness for Franken. The DFL primary results are suggestive to me of substantial resistance to Franken within the Democratic Party and of the likelihood that Norm Coleman will win reelection.

To comment on this post, go here.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses