Franken got a Thousand Bucks from Dan Akroyd and all Norm got was the Leader of the Free World

by Matt Martin | 14 Comments
October 10, 2007, 8:52 am | Category: MN 2008: Senate | Tags: , .

14 Responses to “Franken got a Thousand Bucks from Dan Akroyd and all Norm got was the Leader of the Free World”

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  • Dan Weinand
    October 10, 2007 at 10:35 am

    I love Al and all, but he only netted 450,000 over the last quarter and spent roughly 75% of what he raised. As great as it is to be able to say you raised more money than an incumbent is, a 75% burn rate isn’t exactly something to be excited about.

  • Matt
    October 10, 2007 at 10:41 am

    Franken’s campaign is using the Wellstone, grassroots style of fundraising that requires building a large donor base early on and investing in the structures to support that system. I actually find the grassroots approach unnecessary and favor the more get-the-most-you-can-while-spending-the-least approach of Klobuchar and most other politicians, but there is something to be said for building such a large base this early.

    My point it this: the Wellstone approach almost always has high burn rates early on and high returns thereafter; which means I’m not worried about Franken’s high burn rates as long as this is his last quarter of them. So, check back in 3 months and ask me how I feel.

  • Kerosene Hat
    October 10, 2007 at 10:57 am

    This question is not meant to be smart-assed. Wouldn’t the grass roots method have provided Al with better favorable numbers or at the very least a better ratio of favorable to unfavorable? Right now Coleman is at about 15:10 favorable to unfavorable while Franken is at 8:10. Unless Franken can change around those numbers it won’t matter how many people hear his message since it looks like once they do they don’t like him much.

    MDE may be trying to hack at Franken but not enough people read it to make a difference in the poll numbers.

  • Dan
    October 10, 2007 at 11:01 am

    Holy crap is Franken going to get crushed by Coleman.

  • understand
    October 10, 2007 at 11:06 am

    I understand you want to rah…rah…Franken, but come on. If you are going to have some credibility, you have to acknowledge truth. Just my 2 cents. Franken needs to spend less.

  • John S
    October 10, 2007 at 11:14 am

    Matt-
    Well said, but was Wellstone’s percentage of donation’s from instate compared to those from out of state? I hate to say it, but this seems to walk right into the criticism of ‘he’s just an coastal liberal.’ Which might not be true, but I have every faith in Coleman’s ability to convince a lot of Minnesota that it is.

  • bajonimi
    October 10, 2007 at 1:06 pm

    Holy crap is Franken going to get crushed by Coleman.

    Dear Dan:

    In a word, “No!” Hope that reduces your anxiety.

  • Dan
    October 10, 2007 at 1:18 pm

    Its not anxiety, its resignation. John S has the analysis right on this.

  • John S
    October 10, 2007 at 1:32 pm

    Dan-
    You know what they say about stopped clocks… =)

  • Richard
    October 10, 2007 at 3:01 pm

    It’s the number of donations from instate that’s important. Not percentage, that’s little normy using fuzzy math.

  • DantheMan
    October 11, 2007 at 8:07 am

    Franken and “Grassroots” do not belong in the same sentance to me. Al Franken has been on the national stage for a decade going up against Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, and is much better known as a bestselling author and speaker than a civic contributor. That doesn’t seem like a grassroots movement to me.

  • Kerosene Hat
    October 11, 2007 at 8:15 am

    My opinion is that it is the percentage of dollars raised that makes a difference. Number of contributers is not nearly as valuable as the dollar amounts.

  • Josh
    October 11, 2007 at 2:58 pm

    A grassroots movement can have a well-known figure at the top. “Grassroots” is a descriptor for a type of campaign style as well, not just a description of a figure who came out of nowhere in politics.

    It’s still way too early to make any conclusions on who will win or lose. All players have some bad numbers in the last MN Poll, but it’s hardly definitive. It’s still over a year until the election! This thing is going to be heavily shaped by events outside any candidate’s control. Moreover, we still haven’t seen what will happen when candidates really start putting in effort to convince voters at a time when voters beyond the political junkies like us are listening.

    Let’s not get too excited.

  • john
    October 11, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    how much of Frankens money came from selling buttons at the fair? he does have the coke head Hollywood vote locked up

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