A great little nugget in TPM's Eric Kleefield's conversation with Marty Seifert, discussing the possibility of Norm Coleman jumping into the gubernatorial race:As for what lines of argument Seifert might take with state Republican caucus-goers, to show that he's the better candidate: "I think my appeal is that I'm electable and that -- you know, the bottom line is, I love Norm as a person and as a public servant, but he lost to Al Franken, for goodness' sake."
I asked Seifert about a thought experiment I'd been doing, putting myself in the shoes of a Minnesota Republican activist -- that I would think "we was robbed" in the 2008 Senate race, and a Coleman candidacy for Governor would immediately be an appealing way to put things right again.
"It never should have been close, there never should have been a recount," Seifert responded. "So most people in the party, I think, are looking at the analysis and saying, we should have never had 42% against Al Franken. It should never have been close to start with. And that's with all due respect to Sen. Coleman, but it never should have been close." A couple of threads to suss out here -- Seifert is going against the official party line of "Franken stole the race!" and admitting that, while extremely close, the race was ultimately won fair and square by Senator-elect Franken. But he's also providing us a preview of the kind of bloodletting that's going to happen in the GOP endorsement process -- and with so many candidates, there's a strong possibility of a primary as well, especially if big names like Coleman and Bachmann jump into the race.
Sen.-elect Franken himself has made the point that a lot of people voted against him. 58%, in fact. Of course, 58% (plus 300-some-odd votes, of course) voted against Coleman as well. The difference now between the two is that one is theoretically considering whether to run statewide just two years after nearly six in ten Minnesotans voted against him. |
