Minnesotans abuzz over Senate race
ANOKA, Minn. -- The hottest campaign here this year pits a veteran Republican politician against a Democratic newcomer and has people debating the need for change and which candidate can help fix the economy.
It's not the presidential race between John McCain and Barack Obama that has people in this Minneapolis suburb buzzing. It's the close, costly and contentious U.S. Senate contest between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, a comedian, writer and first-time candidate.
A poll Oct. 22 by Rasmussen Reports found Franken leading Coleman, 41%-37%, with Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley at 17%. A few months ago, Franken faced questions about his entertainment company's unpaid taxes and a 2000 Playboy humor column, in which he described visiting a fictional sex institute, and his campaign seemed stalled, says Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. Growing economic worries changed that, Jacobs says. "Franken has been surfing the bad news in America, and his campaign has really got that anti-Republican wind in its sails."
Topic A: the economy
Over lunch at Legal Grounds, a downtown coffee shop, Jeff Christopher, 66, a retired carpenter, and his daughter Aleesha Ackerman, 32, a secretary, say they usually disagree on politics. He's inclined to support Republicans, and she leans to Democrats. Concern about the economy, though, has both of them planning to vote for Franken.
"Everybody's talking about the economy because it's right in their living room," Ackerman says. Salaries at the RV dealership where her mother-in-law works were just cut in half, and Ackerman worries about her own job. Franken, she says, "seems more in touch with people who are struggling." Her dad adds, "He's going to listen to the people."
At a nearby table, sheriff's detectives Edward Egly, 53, and Larry Johnson, 44, say they will vote for Coleman. "I'm not going to throw a senior senator out because a guy moves here from New York and decides to run," Egly says. The economy is important, he says, but so is national security, and he agrees with Coleman's tough stance on terrorism. Franken's family moved to Minnesota when he was 4, and he returned to the state in 2005.
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