No Joke: Franken, Coleman Fight for Senate Seat

Oct. 26, 2008— -- When Al Franken launched his Democratic campaign to oust Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, few people in Minnesota gave him much of a chance.

Now, some two years later, and with just over a week before Election Day, the comedian and author is leading in some polls and could win a Senate race that has emerged as one of the closest – and most expensive – in the country.

Just a few months ago Coleman enjoyed double-digit leads in state-wide polls, and the first term Republican still has some $5 million on hand to spend on his re-election bid. But his connection to a now-unpopular President Bush, who Coleman campaigned vigorously for in 2004, is proving to be a liability, with state Democratic leaders – and his opponents – painting Coleman as a Bush loyalist.

Watch John Berman's report on the Minnesota Senate race, including interviews with the candidates, Wednesday on "Good Morning America."

In his first year in the Senate, Coleman, a former Democrat who co-chaired President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign in Minnesota, voted with President Bush 98 percent of the time, according to ratings by Congressional Quarterly.

"His negative ratings are atrocious for an incumbent," says Lawrence Jacobs, director at the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Jacobs says a souring economy is hurting GOP candidates nationally and that is rubbing off on Coleman.

"Minnesota Voters have real doubts about the direction of the country right now and they're taking it out on Republicans, and we're seeing that hurt Coleman," he says.

Further complicating the race is the recent addition of third-party candidate Dean Barkley, who announced he was running in July. Barkley, 58, first ran as an outsider for the U.S. House in 1992, then for Senate in 1994 and 1996. He also filled out the last two months of Sen. Paul Wellstone's term, after the two-term Democrat died in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 election against Coleman.

(Former Vice President Walter Mondale filled the Democratic slot in the election, which Coleman eventually won.)