Senatorial Candidate Troubles

05/19/2008

Paul Munnis


The recent poll showing Sen. Norn Coleman with a 6 point lead over Al Franken is bad news for Democrats. Coleman enjoys a commanding 15-point lead over lesser-known Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, who is facing Franken in next month's DFL endorsing convention. Mike Ciresi, the DFL trial lawyer who dropped out of the race in March for lack of support from his party's delegates runs just about as strong against Coleman as Franken does.

We have a State DFL Convention looming here in Rochester in just a few weeks and this is not good news for our Party.

As we ask around about what to do the same answer keeps popping up: Draft Cerisi.

Would Mike Ceresi be amenable to a draft? We think so for he had run once before but what is different now is that all of the endorsements for Franken, and a lot of campaign money would have to come his way to pull off a November victory. This is because a lot of valuable time was lost.

Noting that Mike Cerisi, if drafted, would also be 6 points behind a Coleman contest, it seems clear that without terrific Party support and genuine enthusiasm, the contest would be lost. Mike would have to run a marathon across the State to get elected and the DFL would have to pull out all of the stops to support him.

Some say that at least Cerisi has a fighting chance. The belief is that Franken can’t win, that his tax scandal is too much liability. It's up to Franken to turn that around and he seems unable to do that.

There is not much enthusiasm for Nelson-Pallmeyer either. He is seen mainly as a Twin Cities candidate who has not done a good job of building a constituency in the rest of Minnesota.

Of course the polls will be checked and new polls done but the margin looks pretty formidable. So if this poll stands up to a critique then the Rochester DFL Convention is going to be full of fireworks.