Al Franken

A reporter takes on the Fair with pen and camera – and even survives an encounter with a statue of Jesse Ventura

You’ll never be able to find anyone to argue with this fact: We Minnesotans love our State Fair.

And politicians love it more than anyone.

Think about it: You’re running for office. You want to shake as many Minnesota hands and pose for as many photos with Pronto Pup-munching Minnesotans as possible. The logical conclusion: Spend so much time at the fair that your hands become numb and your voice disappears.

This being an election year, you can believe that politicians were thick on the ground Saturday at the Great Minnesota Get-Together. U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, the DFL-endorsed challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, held court in front of potential constituents for several hours.

“Look at that,” observed a fairgoer, whose Southern accent betrayed her as a non-native (and thus ineligible to vote for Franken anyway). “They’ve got him standing on a box, and he’s still shorter than everyone else.”

In the big DFL booth near the Snelling Avenue entrance to the fairgrounds, enterprising DFL volunteers had supplied a stack of Post-It notes and asked fairgoers to tack up “top reasons to dump Norm Coleman.” Among them: “He’s an empty suit.” “He’s Bush’s friend.” “Because he may think he can rejoin the DFL.” And: “He has a Jersey accent (in Minnesota)!”

Partway up Machinery Hill, Priscilla Lord Faris, the DFLer challenging Franken in the Sept. 9 primary, did some one-on-one campaigning.

“I’ve known her for years,” confided a volunteer in Lord Faris’ booth, watching the candidate chat with a fairgoer and his son. “She’s really a great gal.”

Just a cheese curd’s throw away from Lord Faris’ encampment was a booth with a big sign: “Nader-Gonzalez 2008.”

“Who is Na-dair?” wondered a fairgoer. Told that it was, in fact, perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader, she looked stunned, then embarrassed at her mispronunciation. “He’s running again!” she said.

And still farther up Machinery Hill, supporters of Dean Barkley, who spent two months as a U.S. senator from Minnesota in 2002 after U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s death in a plane crash, staffed a booth that was a tribute to pure symbiosis.

Barkley, a member of the Independence Party of Minnesota (formerly the Minnesota Reform Party), made several unsuccessful stabs at national office before gaining political credibility as the man whose guidance turned Jesse “The Body” Ventura into Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in 1998. Ventura appointed him to fill the remainder of Wellstone’s term in 2002; this year, the former governor is managing Barkley’s campaign for the U.S. Senate as an Independence Party candidate.

And Barkley’s State Fair booth this year is dominated not, as one might expect, by Barkley photos, but by a large fiberglass statue of Ventura. It was a popular attraction Saturday afternoon; fairgoers meandered by and posed for photos beside the statue. (Small dents above the statue’s left eyebrow and on the tip of the nose indicated that someone might have tried a little unsuccessful facial reconstruction.)

A media jackal even made an attempt at fence mending and posed for a photo kissing Ventura’s fiberglass cheek.

Can’t we all just get along?

More photos: Left: Volunteers at the Minnesota GOP booth. Right: a bulletin board set up in the DFL building. Fairgoers could write “reasons to dump Norm Coleman” on Post-It notes and tack them up.

I think Amy Klobuchar is cute.

That’s not satire, it’s not a joke, and it has nothing to do with whether I think the former Hennepin County prosecutor is a good U.S. Senator.

I just happen to think she’s good-looking. And for the record, I think it’s too early in her senatorial career to judge how effective or not Klobuchar is.

But she’s definitely a politician, someone who’s been groomed for the political arena, and she’s apparently pretty good at it, given she was elected to the U.S. Senate.

And make no mistake – being a politician ain’t easy.

Over the years of my career as a journalist, mostly in Chicago, I’ve covered more than a few politicians and political races. I like to say that I like and dislike politicians and politics with equal fervor.

Some of the politicians I’ve covered and gotten to know a little I hold in the highest regard, no matter which party they belong to; others, I consider egotistical blow-bags not worth much (again, regardless of party).

I’ve often thought about how to be a politician you have to have a sizable ego, a great touch with people, tremendous energy and a strong desire to serve the public. In the best ones, the ego is not quite as big as the desire to serve and bring about change.

But there’s no doubt how much time and effort it takes to run for office and stay in office (not even to mention the oodles of money it takes and keeps taking).

Think about it – as a politician you always have to be “on”. You can never in public let your guard down, especially in these Internet- and YouTube-fueled days. We all have our bad days, days when we’d be better off staying home because the force just isn’t with us.

But for most of us, having a bad day isn’t a make-or-break proposition; for politicians, especially candidates, a bad day can make the difference between winning and losing.

I was thinking about this last night as I observed Al Franken making his way out of the DFL’s “Unity Party” at the Mayo Civic Center Saturday about 10 p.m. after a long day during which Franken finally secured the endorsement of Minnesota’s Democratic party.

It took Franken and his few handlers a half an hour to wind their way out of the party because every few feet someone wanted to shake his hand and/or have their photos taken with him. Most of the people, I’m sure, were happy and sincere and excited to get a few moments with the U.S. Senate candidate and well-known comedian.

But then there were others, like the two young men who stopped Franken and got in his face to urgently and almost angrily make a point about gay rights. Franken’s face went from smiling-and-friendly to tense-but-still-trying-to-keep-the-smile in a few seconds. And I don't blame him.

Then there was the guy who was laughing as he walked away from using his cell phone to take a photo of himself with Franken. I asked the guy why he was laughing, and he cracked up some more and told me that he’s a Republican and doesn’t like Democrats but was going around and taking photos of himself with every DFL politician he could find and then sending the photos to his friends, just for a few laughs. He showed me a few.

Politicians are targets and spectacles – they are celebrities.

Mari Urness Pokornowski, of Cokato, president of the Board of Directors of the DFL Feminist Caucus, resigned Saturday because of the group’s endorsement of Al Franken over his opponent in the Democrat’s nomination battle in the U.S. Senate race.

Pokornowski was not immediately available Sunday morning.

Jackie Stevenson, 73, political director of the DFL Feminist Caucus, helped recruit Pokornowski to run for head of the feminist caucus and describes her as a close friend, said she is disappointed that Pokornowski has resigned but isn’t sure yet why.

“It all started with the Franken thing and some things that were said, but I don’t know exactly why and don’t want to say more until I get a chance to talk with Mari,” said Stevenson, who joined the feminist caucus not long after it started in 1973.

On Saturday afternoon, the caucus endorsed Franken with 72 percent support in a surprisingly tough nomination battle with college professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer made much more difficult by negative publicity Franken got for past satiric writings that included “jokes” about rape, violence toward women and bestiality.

Republicans say they will try to make Franken and his personality the focus of the campaign against incumbent GOP U.S. Senator Norm Coleman.

In a press release announcing the endorsement, Stevenson said, “Al very strongly demonstrated an understanding of our issues and we know he’ll represent us in Washington.”

There’s no doubt that Pokornowski has had a tough week as head of the caucus.

After U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president after a bruising battle with U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, Koryne Horbal, 71, who founded the DFL Feminist Caucus, said she would not support Obama and wanted to organize a write-in campaign for Clinton.

Pokornowski was forced to issue a press release distancing her group from its founder’s actions. “It was as much of a surprise to us as it was to you,” the press release said in part.
On its website, the feminist caucus says it works “to bring about change by electing progressive legislators.

“Our members and supported legislators have been responsible for progressive legislation including bettered women's programs, sexual assault programs, displaced homemaker programs, child health care, anti stalking legislation, among others.

Photos by Bill Klotz

DFL officials consult their notes during balloting for the U.S. Senate race.

Delegates consider their U.S. Senate ballots.

The press zone is a busy hive of activity.

The convention paused for a moment to recognize veterans of the Armed Forces.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer concedes the race for U.S. Senate, and afterwards, Franken embraces him. Franken then says that people like Pallmeyer are why he's a Democrat.

Franken gets showered with confetti, and points towards the DFL pols onstage.

Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) and Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park) laugh onstage.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar joins Franken onstage.

Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher (DFL-Minneapolis) congratulates Franken as the confetti falls.

Congressional candidate for CD3 Ashwin Madia joins Franken onstage.

Gov. Wendy Anderson embraces Franken. Anderson later told PIM that he actually prefers walking, golf, hockey to fishing. Fishing is all right, but he doesn't like sitting in the boat.

Franken's family joins him onstage.

Rep. Karla Bigham (DFL-Cottage Grove) winks at Franken, as Senators Mee Moua (DFL-St. Paul) and Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis) look on.

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.”

“Tomorrow, we get back to work.”

At those words, as Al Franken finished his acceptance speech, red, white and blue confetti burst from the ceiling and the Kinks’ “I Hope Tomorrow You’ll Find Better Things” blared from the loud speakers.

The comedian had officially become a candidate.

Despite a week of negative attention resulting from past writings that have offended some people and politicians – on a bi-partisan basis – Franken is the DFL candidate for U.S. Senate.

He will face first-termer Norm Coleman, the Republican who used to be a Democrat and mayor of St. Paul and won election to the Senate a few weeks after the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife and others died in an airplane crash.

Franken made it perfectly clear that he is going to try to make Coleman and his record of supporting President George Bush the primary themes of his campaign.

His challenge, as Democrats and Republicans agree, will be to make sure that the GOP is not successful in making Franken himself the focus of the campaign.

State Sen. Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis), Minnesota Senate Majority Leader, predicted that “in about a month” people will know whether Franken can do that and have a chance to beat Coleman.

Arlys Graff, a delegate from Le Sueur who supported University of St. Thomas peace professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, said it was a bit “sad. But that’s what happens with elections. .. I think we’re pretty united to beat Norm Coleman.”

David Beecham, an alternate delegate from St. Paul, held a sign with one side supporting Franken and the other Nelson-Pallmeyer.

Beecham, a Franken supporter, praised Nelson-Pallmeyer’s decision to withdraw his bid for the endorsement. “I am a big Jack fan right now, as a result of what he just did. This is symbolic of unity in the party. The making goal has been to unseat Norm Coleman.”

Franken gave an animated acceptance speech, taking hard aim at Coleman and linking him with Bush.

“We have been waiting for eight years … and we have seen a new progressive majority in this state and in this country,” Franken said. “And we know what we want – we want universal health care; we want an economy that works for all of us and not just special interests; we want global warming initiatives that will create a green economy.

“And we want to restore our standing in the world, starting by getting out of Iraq and bringing our troops home.”

Franken promised that he and his staff will work hard by “getting up early and staying up late. … And we are going to do that because 5 million people in Minnesota need representation in Washington, and Norm Coleman has not been doing that. Norm Coleman has not brought people together to get things done; he has sold people out to get ahead.”

Now that Franken has secured the DFL nomination, some are wondering whether wealthy lawyer Mike Ciresi, Franken’s one-time primary rival for the nomination, will get back into the race and challenge Franken.

Speculation also has it that Jesse Ventura, Minnesota’s former governor and an Independent, will get into the race.

(Capitol Report staff writer Charley Shaw contributed to this post.)

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer has just taken the podium and declined the nomination and called for an acclamation endorsement of Al Franken for U.S. Senator.

The convention delegates accepted a motion in support of that, meaning Franken has the DFL endorsement after one ballot. The word swirling around the press area is that Franken secured 61.8 percent of the endorsement votes.

“I want to congratulate Al Franken. You have selected Al Franken, and I will abide by your decision,” Nelson-Pallmeyer said. He thanked his family and his volunteers and the delegates.

“We are determined that we are going to change the direction of this country and we are going to do it in this election,” Nelson-Pallmeyer said.

One delegate, a middle-aged woman in line getting a sandwich while the votes were being counted, said she personally was not offended by Franken’s satiric writings that included “jokes” about rape and violence against women. And she voted for Franken because she wants someone who can beat Norm Coleman. “I want a fighter,” she said.

Franken is approaching the stage for his acceptance speech -- to rousing applause.

Photo by Bill Klotz.

In his speech asking for the DFL nomination for the U.S. Senate race Saturday afternoon, Al Franken apologized for what he described as some “downright offensive” jokes that he wrote during his career as a writer.

“I’ve had some tough conversations this week,” Franken said after about a minute of his speech, and the excited convention hall in Rochester, which had been booming with noise just a few moments before, grew very quiet.

His mea culpa moment had come.

“It kills me that things that I said and wrote sent a message to some of my friends in this room and people in this state that they can’t count on me to be a champion for women, and for all the people in Minnesota, in this campaign and in the Senate. I am sorry for that. [Audience broke into a big round of applause.]

“Because that’s not who I am.

"I’m a husband – married to my favorite person on earth, Franni, for 32 years …

"And, for 35 years, I was a writer. I wrote a lot of jokes. Some of them weren’t funny. Some of them were inappropriate. Some of them were downright offensive.

"I understand that.

"And I understand that the people of Minnesota deserve a senator who won’t say things that’ll make them uncomfortable.

"But I’m in this race because there are some people in Washington who could afford to feel a little less comfortable.” [Another big round of applause.]

Franken then threw himself into a rousing denouncement of President Bush and sitting U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

The audience’s reaction to Franken’s speech clearly outdid the reaction to the speech of Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.

Whether or not Franken would be a better senator than Nelson-Pallmeyer, he gave a clearly better speech Saturday afternoon in Rochester – at a moment when he had to.

Whether it'll be enough will become clear in the next hour.

Just after the DFL Feminist Caucus announced they'd endorsed Al Franken, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN4) stopped by the press area and said she is still concerned about Franken and the distraction some of his past writings on porn and violence against women are posing for Democrats.

"I am just speaking for myself," McCollum said, adding that she was unaware of the feminists' endorsement of Franken.

She said she's very interested in how Franken is going to address these issues in the speech he will give in an hour or so asking DFL delegates for their support. She's looking for Franken to explain what he will do to stop these issues from being a distraction and redirect the focus toward the pressing issues that Democrats should be addressing, such as high gas prices and improving infrastructure like bridges.

"[Franken] has the potential to be a very big distraction," McCollum said. "We should be talking about what we are going to do" about gas prices and building or repairing bridges.

McCollum reiterated what she's said this week, that she finds Franken's writings offensive and unfunny.

She called on Franken to be "forthright" and tell people "how are you going to get beyond talking about" his past.

McCollum also said she is not encouraging former Senate candidate Mike Ciresi to get back into the race.

At the end of a not terribly exciting 60-minute question-and-answer session with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Al Franken, the two candidates vying for the nomination of the state DFL Party, aides for Franken quickly passed out a press release announcing that the DFL Feminist Caucus has endorsed Franken for the U.S. Senate.

In the release, Jackie Stevenson, political director of the DFL Feminist Caucus, said that the caucus board voted 72 percent to support Franken: “Al very strongly demonstrated an understanding of our issues and we know he’ll represent us in Washington.”

And Franken is quoted in the press release: "I am so tremendously honored to have the support of the DFL Feminist Caucus. And I promise to go to Washington and fight for women from every party, their children and their families.”

I'm still in the Twin Cities where I'll opine here before heading to Rochester.

On this windy, stormy June day, the election in November looks to be even windier and stormier for the Republicans. Barack Obama wowed 'em at the X. John McCain looks old and tired. The DFL Legislature got its work done on time and in agreement with our GOP Governor.

But behind the clouds lies a bright shining GOP sun. Al Franken. A seriously flawed candidate who will make incumbent GOP U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman's star rise even higher when Coleman defeats Franken in a national GOP election debacle year.

Never mind Franken's machine sex fantasy in Playboy. Or his crass jokes about Andy Rooney raping Leslie Stahl. Franken's fatal flaw is lack of judgment. I fleshed that out earlier this week in Franken Fraught-O-Rama.

The diehard Republican in me wants Democrats to endorse Franken; the Minnesotan in me dreads that endorsement. Because if Al Franken is the DFL candidate, the election is about the latest chapter in Franken follies, not the issues. Nothing funny or satirical about that.

I'm betting we'll see lots more of Franken's bad judgment in Rochester: Every time he or his campaign blames his past thinking and writing on the Republicans. It ain't about the Republicans. It's all about Al.

Finally, the decades-long joke about DFL feminists eating their young is over. [The idea was the generation running DFL feminist groups didn't promote younger DFL women feminists.] Sen. Kathy Saltzman (DFL-Woodbury) and Rep. Sandy Wollschlager (DFL-Cannon Falls) were the first prominent DFL women to condemn Franken. They rightly noted they don't want to spend their summers defending Al Franken's idea of funny. They were followed by U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN4), Planned Parenthood's Connie Perpich and Sarah Stoecz, and, (finally), U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D).

Collectively, they're teaching the next generation what's acceptable in political leadership and what's not.

In 2008, the raunchiest porn and the bawdiest jokes may be just a few mouse clicks away.

But porn and rape jokes still don't belong on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

I'll have lots more to say about Franken, tomorrow, from Rochester, where I'll be looking for the "DFL Feminists for Franken" caucus.

The Republican convention in Rochester this past weekend was a somewhat staid and stultifying affair.

Staid because there was nary a balloon or speck of confetti at an event that, in the last few decades, has evolved into grand political pageantry. Anybody remember six years ago when Norm Coleman was first endorsed to run for the U.S. Senate? Coleman's endorsement was consummated with a massive balloon, confetti, sound and light show.

Stultifying because two of keynote speaker Karl Rove's biggest applause lines were about frivolous lawsuits. A country waging an unpopular war and making ends meet in a weak economy won't be thinking about trial lawyers when it's time to vote this November.

State conventions are about energizing the party troops. This past weekend the only person generating any kilowatts was a guy who wasn't there. Al Franken. The GOP energizer bunny gift that keeps on giving. And going and going.

The most recent present from Franken's sleigh full of baggage is a column he wrote for Playboy in the magazine's January 2000 issue. The 1478-word piece was titled "Porn-O-Rama!" The most meaningful way to assess the political ramifications of the column is to read it in its entirety (which I did, thanks to several DFL friends who emailed it to me).

Unfortunately, the column is copyrighted and thus major media won't reprint it or link to it in a PDF. I have been sorely tempted to publish it here on PIM, but because we're now happily ensconced in the stable of publications owned by Dolan Media Company, instigating a copyright infringement lawsuit doesn't bode well for future payments on my mortgage.

But more important, Al Franken's column isn't worth a dime in legal fees. While Porn-O-Rama! is sexist, crass and vulgar, the one thing it is not is funny. Which raises the most important question of all: What kind of judgment does a man have who makes jokes about bestiality and 12-year-olds in the same sentence?

A man who, at the age of 49 in 2000, writes, "The moment Playboy told me I could tackle any subject for its millennium issue, I immediately chose pornography" ...?

GOP activist Michael Brodkorb, who blogs at Minnesota Democrats Exposed, broke a whopper of a story yesterday:

DFL Senate candidate Al Franken owes a $25,000 penalty to the New York State Workers' Compensation Board for failing to carry workers' compensation insurance for employees of his namesake corporation from 2002 to 2005.

I called Franken campaign aide Andy Barr, yesterday, who told me that Franken's accountant was looking into the matter and that's all he could say at this time. The Star Tribune's Kevin Duchschere got more from Barr: "Campaign spokesman Andy Barr said that neither Franken nor his wife, Franni, were aware of the matter before Tuesday. They have lived in Minneapolis for the past few years and did not know about the state's attempts to reach them in New York City, he said."

Also, Barr said, ""I can categorically deny that there was any attempt to evade responsibility, and I doubt that there was some kind of error that was made, although until we know all the facts I can't say for sure what happened."

The key facts as we know them from Brodkorb and Duchschere: Al Franken Inc. once carried workers compensation insurance (meaning: Franken knew he had to have the insurance); the policy lapsed and Franken didn't renew it; the state of New York found out about it; Franken didn't respond to what presumably had to be multiple notices from the state of New York; and, the state adjudicated a $25,000 penalty to Franken for failure to carry workers compensation insurance.

In 2006, Franken reported a salary of more than $1 million from Al Franken Inc. Meaning: Someone was processing mail at the address listed for Al Franken Inc. If someone was accepting and writing checks for Al Franken Inc., someone was opening the mail and seeing the notices from the state of New York.

Recently I dubbed Al Franken "Ad Hominem Al."

Maybe that should be "Implausible Al."

As I told Barr, yesterday, it is inconceivable to me that someone smart like Franken with U.S. Senate political ambition would blow off years of notices, never mind the final judgment, relating to failure to pay workers compensation.

What a conundrum for all those unions that endorsed Franken. Workers compensation is a bread-and-butter, if not signature, union issue.

Now what do AFSCME Council 5, Education Minnesota and the Service Employees International Union do?

At 26 and 24, the more youthful members of the PIM team have not paid a landline phone bill since our sophomore years in college (2001-2002/2002-2003 respectively) and most likely will never will again. When we look through our contacts, we do not find one friend or peer whose number is a home landline. It seems the landline has gone the way of the typewriter, a relic of a bygone era.

Then why do so many political and social survey pollsters rely exclusively on landline phone numbers and their skewed demographics when conducting public opinion polls? They are cheaper and easier to poll, and the absence of this "cell-only" crowd does not really affect the outcome of most polls and surveys in a statistically relevant way, a 2007 Pew Research Center study found. The cell-only group at the moment is still small enough, and similar enough to its landline-owning demographic equivalents, to only affect surveys by .7% points on average, the Pew Research Center study found.

The 2006 study found that 11.8% of adults have a cell phone as their only phone line. Scott Keeter, one of the authors of the Pew study, estimates that the figure now is more like 14%. The cell-only population tends to be younger, more tech-savvy, less affluent, less likely to be married or a home owner, less conservative, and contain a greater proportion of men and minorities than the landline owning public. But it is growing fast, and will soon be a large enough population that traditional random digit dial (RDD) will not be able to accurately capture the true mood of the public. It would seem that excluding this group would greatly skew the results in races like the DFL Senate battle, where Al Franken and his youthful following would be under-represented against Mike Ciresi. Professor Paul Goren, a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Minnesota, assured us this is not the case. Data samples are often weighed following collection to compensate for a demographic that may be absent or disproportionately missing.

Pollsters, aware of the problem, have taken measures to court the ever-growing cell-only population, such as $10 to reimburse the time respondents spend burning their minutes. Outside of the inherent cost associated with cell phone dialing, further impediments arise. Federal law prohibits the use of automated dialing services when contacting cell users so each number must be dialed manually, and contact rates tend to be be much lower when dialing cell samples (how many people answer their phones when a strange number pops up?). The cost of the cell-only polls becomes more expensive, 2.4 times as costly as their landline brethren.

Keeter acknowledges the future of polling will look much different than it does now. In upcoming elections he expects Internet-based polling to become more popular, with access to the Web to be provided for those who lack a connection. There is also no word yet on the effects of new media like the social-networking site Facebook or the video-sharing YouTube on polls, but most experts agree the effect will be minimum at best.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a front page story, "Labor Makes Big Comeback in '08 Races." That's certainly true in the Minnesota U.S. Senate race. It's a story we've been tracking for months, in A Tale of Two AFSCMEs, A Tale, Chapter Two and A Tale, Chapter Three.

This week, Education Minnesota endorsed DFL U.S. Senate contender Al Franken over Mike Ciresi, the other top contender in the race. The endorsement of the state's biggest union (70,000-plus members) is huge. Add the endorsement of AFCME Council 5, at 43,000 members, and now you're talking super huge. These top two state unions are highly motivated, and that will be tough, but not insurmountable, to the Ciresi team. Ciresi earned the endorsement of AFCME Council 65, which boasts 11,000-plus members.