DFL-GOP strategy duel

Ron Carey, head of the Minnesota Republican Party, reacted to the nomination of Al Franken in the U.S. Senate race, saying the election will be about Al Franken.

“The joke today is that the DFL has nominated Al Franken,” Carey told reporters. He questioned whether people in Minnesota will want as one of their two senators in Washington someone who writes jokes about rape and bestiality.

Brian Melendez, head of Minnesota’s DFL Party, said, no, the election will be about Norm Coleman and his record in Washington the last six years.

The Republican strategy of trying to make the Coleman-Franken race about Franken is not going to work, Melendez said. “The people of Minnesota are smarter than that.”

In an interview with reporters about 3:30 Saturday afternoon, Melendez said, “What the Republicans are desperately trying to talk about … is anything but what Minnesotans want to talk about.

“Of course the Republicans want to talk about Al Franken, because every one of the issues that are important to Minnesotans the Republicans have failed on.”

“Al Franken will make the campaign about [Norm Coleman], and he will win,” Melendez said.

The party chief, who is also head of the Minnesota State Bar Association, said he and other
DFL leaders had accepted Franken’s “heart-felt apology” for the past satiric writings that some have found offensive – including some Democratic politicians, like U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (DFL-MN4) of St. Paul.

“I’m done with that,” Melendez said. “And he [Al Franken] is right – if he has to keep answering questions about this … the election will be about him. This election is about Norm Coleman.”