Tag: al franken

Democrats: Help us, Al Franken! You’re our only hope!

I don’t know what’s funnier about this article: I mean, is it that it’s uncritically repeating stuff like this…

In a rare interview in his Capitol office, the Minnesotan described his most ambitious effort yet to help elect Democrats in his more than six years in Washington. Franken is using his celebrity to help raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democratic candidates, and Democrats are relying on him to play an outsize role, alongside high-profile senators like Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, to pick up the five seats the party needs to flip the Senate in 2016.

…without explaining once which five (they actually mean six, because Vice Presidents break all ties) seats are going to go*? Or is it that the Democrats are apparently relying on a guy who gets lost in the Senate halls? Continue reading Democrats: Help us, Al Franken! You’re our only hope!

KTSP/SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota shows Mark Dayton, Al Franken having problems.

What a lovely poll that is.

Well, it’s lovely from my point of view, at least.

Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken survived recounts when they won their first elections to the governor’s office and U.S. Senate. According to our latest KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, they might have to sweat our close races again in 2014. Franken clings to a six-point lead over his closest Republican challenger Mike McFadden, 48 percent to 42 percent. The poll has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.1 percent.

[snip]

Governor Dayton also faces a potentially close re-election bid. He also leads his nearest competitor by just six points. The GOP-endorsed candidate for governor, Jeff Johnson, trails Dayton 46% to 40%.

Continue reading KTSP/SurveyUSA poll in Minnesota shows Mark Dayton, Al Franken having problems.

The Minnesota Senate race is an annoyance.

David Freddoso lays it out: Barack Obama has a 36% – thirty-six – approval rating and Al Franken’s own personal numbers are 46/42.  That’s the kind of combination that screams ‘vulnerable incumbent’ – but we just need a candidate.  And there’s still no clear sign of one in the wings.

I know, there are candidates.  But we need one of them to start shining. Today. And then we need the other candidates to get out of the way.

Sorry. Venting.

Moe Lane

Star Tribune: Al Franken at 44% against opponents (…they muttered, darkly).

You’re probably sourly amused at all the signalling done in these paragraphs:

A new Minnesota poll, commissioned by a partisan group, finds that Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken is “potentially vulnerable” as he mounts his bid for re-election.

It found that Franken has a 3 percentage lead over Republican Julianne Ortman and a 6 percentage point lead over Republican Mike McFadden.

The poll was conducted by Magellan Strategies for American Encore, a group connected to the Koch Brothers that is already running television ads bashing Franken. It included 1,081 likely Minnesota voters in late March.

Continue reading Star Tribune: Al Franken at 44% against opponents (…they muttered, darkly).

Huh. @alfranken is a big-time #NSA surveillance supporter?

Apparently.

WASHINGTON — A vocal proponent among US Senate liberals for controversial National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance efforts says the program could be shut down, and experts are unsure how many Americans’ phone numbers have been gathered.

Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, one of the few proponents of the NSA data-collection programs among Democratic progressives, said Wednesday he is “not assuming” that lawmakers will opt to “keep the bulk collection.”

“Vocal,” even. Continue reading Huh. @alfranken is a big-time #NSA surveillance supporter?

Add Minnesota to the list of “#obamacare exchanges about to wreck YOUR insurance coverage.”

Time to test Minnesota Nice to destruction, I guess:

…Minnesota’s top insurers have laid out a list of technological problems that they say may keep people who’ve enrolled in a health plan from being covered on Jan. 1.

Insurance carriers selling plans on the state’s insurance marketplace say enrollment information they’re getting from MNsure, is inaccurate and incomplete – and that time is running out to fix these problems.

[snip]

“At this late date, the health plan companies do not have most of the names or information on individuals who have enrolled through MNsure,” Julie Brunner, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Health Plans wrote in a letter to MNsure Executive Director April Todd-Malmlov and Lucinda Jesson, Minnesota Commissioner of Human Services.

Continue reading Add Minnesota to the list of “#obamacare exchanges about to wreck YOUR insurance coverage.”

Senator Al Franken (D, Minnesota) is in more trouble than the Democrats want to admit.

I do not say, Al Franken will be beaten next year.  I do say, Al Franken can be beaten next year. He is not as invulnerable as apparently everybody else thought that he was:

Franken’s seat currently sits on the ‘watch list’ of D.C. prognosticators Charlie Cook and Larry Sabato – both identifying the race as a ‘likely’ hold for Franken, with the caveat that the race may yet become competitive.

Such caution seems validated in light of a new St. Cloud State University poll that was released on Wednesday, which shows Franken receiving a job approval rating of just 39 percent among his constituents – 18 points behind the state’s senior delegation member Amy Klobuchar at 57 percent.

Fifty-one percent of Gopher State residents rated Franken’s job performance negatively.

That’s a poll of adults – which, contra that article, is not actually great news for Franken.  Adult voters tend, by and large, to skew a bit more Democratic than likely voters*.  Mind you, more polling is needed. Continue reading Senator Al Franken (D, Minnesota) is in more trouble than the Democrats want to admit.

I wonder what Al Franken’s internal polling is telling him.

Presumably not good things.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) says he would be open to a brief delay in the individual mandate if the problems with HealthCare.gov aren’t fixed by the end of the month, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

“I think then we have to consider extending the deadline for the mandate, but let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Franken told MPR.

Franken has so far been relatively quiet about potential changes to the health-care law, but he now joins a growing group of Senate Democrats in seats that could be targeted by the GOP in 2014 who are speaking up on the issue.

…And as you can see, the Washington Post kind of agrees with me there.  Franken has always been, in my opinion, more brittle than he looks; and while you are certainly welcome to discount my opinion (I am not always right) Franken is certainly showing the signs of somebody who is at least worried. Guess we’ll see.

Via Instapundit.