Former Star Tribune columnist Doug Grow reports for MinnPost [emphasis mine]:
Mike Ciresi’s chances of winning DFL endorsement to run in the U.S. Senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman seem to be fading.
Several sources close to the three major campaigns told MinnPost today that if the party’s state convention were held this weekend, Ciresi would finish third, behind favored Al Franken. He also reportedly trails Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, a St. Thomas professor who, by most accounts, is running in second place for support among delegates who will bestow endorsement at the DFL state convention in Rochester June 6-8.
Grow admits, however, that the numbers still remain fuzzy after last weekends spattering of district conventions and the many more to come both this weekend and next:
A scattering of reports from area newspapers show Franken strength in the delegate race: In Becker County, Franken won six delegates and Ciresi one; in Hubbard County, Franken won seven delegates, with Ciresi and Nelson-Pallmeyer each picking up two. In Senate District 38, the Burnsville-Eagan area, 10 delegates were committed to Franken, with one each for Nelson-Pallmeyer and Ciresi. There were five uncommitted delegates.
Of course, there are 120 other district conventions, including the 30 this weekend. The three candidates will be attending as many of those as possible.
Again, it’s far too early to tell what will happen and the reports out of the conventions thus far are inconclusive, but what Grow reports is similar to what we’ve been hearing and if Franken continues this sort of dominance, we could have a very quick endorsement come state convention time.
If you go to your district convention (and I encourage everyone to do so), please report to us in the comments!
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If I remember correctly, Ciresi only picked up two delegates in SD60. From what I understand about SD62 where I live, there isn’t much Ciresi support at all. Then again, JNP is a neighbor here. Franken will still likely come out on top of JNP even in his home district. I’m going all out for state delegate in SD62 tomorrow — it’ll be a fun day.
Excellent news. The ambulance chaser is history, the moonbat is being ignored by his own party and Angry Al is toast.
Its nice to see this blog talk about the senate race again after the blackout regarding Franken’s continuing legal problems. Seeing this post just makes me think team Franken ( and his paid bloggers that run this site) are trying to change the story again by talking about Ciresi keeping his promises. The bottom line is the only person who is in question on the DFL side is jail bird Al.
I think you should re-read a post I put up yesterday:
What the blog-o-sphere needs to understand is that Minnesota is still in a
caucus / primary process and therefore has many possible democrats that
could take on norm Coleman and win. As loyal democrats we owe it to our
country to properly vet our candidates and let the best go forward in our
process. Refusing to talk about any faults of even one candidate jeopardize
the whole party. Al Franken has a well-proven history of turning his back
on facts and spinning things in his favor:
Al Franken has flip-flopped on the Iraq war, read the direct quotes on this
page:
http://www.ciresiforsenate.com/interface/frankenAttackImg/page2Large.jpg
He has a history of outbursts and tantrums,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncemI5vxJ5g, that are hardly the conduct of a
candidate for high office.
He has a pattern of questionable business practices,
http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2006/01/did-al-frankens-outrageous-demand
s.html , only highlighted by the last few days issue of failing to pay works
comp for a few years and now paying a large fine.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/16334106.html
All cemented together by the quote, ³ No, I would be crushed by the sense of
responsibility, voting on whether to authorize the use of force is a big
decision, especially on a close call. I don¹t know if I could handle that.
That¹s what you¹re doing when you elect someone: You¹re giving them the
opportunity to handle it.²
What does it tell you when a candidate for the US Senate says he would be
crushed by the responsibility of the job if he where elected? I know our
party can do better then this guy!
All things considered Al Franken should hardly be the progressives first
choice in the MN senate election. If you look at the poll numbers, Franken,
Ciresi, and Jack are all with in the margin of error of each other on
beating Coleman but with Franken having almost 50% unfavorable while the
other two are around 4-7%. This leads to the conclusion that Franken cannot
appeal to the middle and thus he will cause a defeat for the Democratic
Party. Its time people stopped caring so much for the man they just heard
on the radio and start thinking about the well being of their party more.
It should tell you something when almost 80% of Franken¹s money has been
raised out of state! What would you rather have, a good fight to get Franken
into office that would concentrate on his questionable past, or a fight with
Ciresi or Jack concentrating on Coleman¹s poor record. This isn¹t a call
to rally around Franken because he is the only democrat standing; it¹s a
call to look at the other candidates to prevent another McGovern ¬ Eagleton
affair.
Check out:
http://www.jackforsenate.org/
http://www.ciresiforsenate.com/
Then start your comments
Over all with the amounting evidence against Franken is a great thing that not many delegates have been chosen yet so we can still send Franken back to NY.
I’m not sure that those caucus-label delegates are committed to those same caucus labels, or are committed to vote for those people/issues.
For example, if a person leaves a first caucus as an Hillary-green-Franken delegate, at a different caucus, with different information, the person could support Obama, Ciresi, and green issues also.
That is probably why, in part, former StarTribune columnist Doug Grow wrote that the numbers still remain “fuzzy.”
Once the police, or a commanding military drill instructor military person whom has command over you, or the press, etc. suspect something that may have confirmed their suspicions, or that looks questionable, or that is questionable, etc. then they may start digging a little more.
Those numbers may become “fuzzier” yet. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer may have been a recipient of some of that ” a little more” digging.
Talk about whistling past the graveyard… here it is folks, Cirisi is toast. Coleman will be toast in November. Al Franken will be the next Senator from the Great State of Minnesota. What a bunch of whiny Republicans we got in this state.
Just wait until the next time Gimmicky Timmy runs… the DFL will put up a candidate that will kick his butt back to his pretend working class roots.
After November, it will be hard to find a Minnesotan who is willing to admit to being a Republican!
Grow’s observations are pre comp-gate, and are mostly of a few Metro area conventions. Outstate uncommited is in 1st place with the three named candidatez virtually tied for second place. The real question here is how much support Deadbeat Boss Franken has lost- Labor was his major constituency. Then try to factor in what other negative news will emerge about Franken between now and the convention…
Dyna,
We can always depend on you to trash Al. Thanks for jumping right into it.
“Excellent news. The ambulance chaser is history, the moonbat is being ignored by his own party and Angry Al is toast.”
I bet in 2005 you were crowing about how we were going to have republican gains in the house in senate.
Here’s how it’s going to play:
Franken will get the nomination
Franken will CRUSH Coleman in November.
You may think and feel, that one DFL candidate is “toast,” however, write it assertively, not aggressively.
Lay out the reason(s) in a logical way.
I think that part of the mix when dealing with a celebrity candidate is that you have to look beyond the status of being a celebrity, the fuzziness, and look at the issues, facts, and make judgments.
Words like “always” in “we can always depend on you to trash Al” sound like it is a rally cry for protectionism - not for discussion.
My comments were based on history, nothing else. Not aggressive - just statement of fact.
Well, I’m one of the few people to admit liking Al’s radio show. So when Al jumped into the senate race, I threw my support behind him. It’s then that I saw the ugly side of Al Franken’s campaign… suffice to say it’s no surprise to me that he won’t even provide legally required Worker’s Comp insurance. So I looked at the other candidates and switched my allegience to Mike Ciresi. With labor folks fleeing “do as I say not as I do” Franken, it looks like I was just a few months ahead of the pack in making the Ciresi switch.
I have watched Franken on TV, listened to him [and watched him in studio] on radio, and have one or two of his books.
In the areas where I have some experience or where I have done some investigating, I have a good idea when/where he’s glossed over something, or has tried to make something sound better than it really is.
If I know about some things, it’s a pretty good bet that the Republicans also know.
In the general election, Democrats are to put the best candidate forward.
I think that Democrats can have argumentation and debate - not necessarily beat up on each other.
I’ll be a delegate to my senate district in a few weeks and am still trying to decide between Ciresi and JNP. The comments here are not very helpful. Anyone have recommendations for other MN
political blogs?
See homiefro’s post, 11 posts ahead (timewise; March 7, 4:41pm) of this post.
At the very end of Homiefrom’s post there are two websites listed. One is for Mike Ciresi, and one for Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.
Their campaign office telephone numbers should be listed on those websites. Someone from their respective campaigns would probably be very glad to directly answer your questions.
[There is a yellow Ciresi Ad in the upper right hand corner, however, I haven’t yet clicked on it. I don’t know if this post that I’m currently writing on will erase before I click on the submit button, so if you want you can try it out for yourself!]
Comments here are probably slanted and not helpful to Laurie.
Calling the campaign offices is a good idea. I’d recommend presenting them with your important issues so you can get information for how the candidates differentiate themselves on those issues. They have some significant differences, like how to handle national health care.
I want a ‘partnership’ with an elected official when they graduate from being a candidate. Will they remember me when I call them a year from now and ask them to co-sponsor a bill? If you have an issue that’s important to you, and a candidate won’t take a stand on it or go to bat for you, that’s how you can determine if they flunk the ‘partnership’ test.
I just don’t understand some of the people who post so blindly. When DFLers say “Franken is going to beat Norm this fall!!!” or “Bachmann and Kline will be enjoying their retirement together in November when blah blah blah.” It’s just as bad as when the Republicans sound of about how Tim is “going down,” or that the transportation bill will destroy the DFL, or the other crap they regularly throw out.
No, Kline will continue to serve the 2nd Congressional because Sarvi’s campaign can’t get their act together and his fundraising is lackluster at best. Norm will beat Al because Al is fatally flawed in more ways than we can imagine. Tim is going to win because the GOP won’t have a nominee until the primary and the winner won’t have enough money for the General. The state will vote DFL in the House because the transportation bill is a good thing and people know that.
Don’t just toss rhetoric out there for rhetoric’s sake. You look stupid when you’re wrong in early November.
This is the first cycle in a long while, by the way, where the Democrats appear to be blindly following without thinking and the Republicans actually appear to be having second thoughts. I mean, seriously, Alan Franken??? Who’d have thought?
And of course, we can’t go without thanking our wonderful editorial board here at Publius for finally having a post about Mike Ciresi.
Huh. Weird that it’s a negative one.
About a week ago the headlines were, “Coleman endorses Ciresi?”
I don’t know if the editorial board at Publius considered that a Coleman post, or a Ciresi post.
Isn’t it neat to see the vultures come out?
The MDE crowd with their well wishes?
Good thing they don’t have an agenda!
SD60 went:
Franken 18
Nelson — Pallmeyer 6
Uncommitted 4
Ciresi 2
This total, in the largest senate district convention, I think shows where the tide is going. Nelson — Pallmeyer had to win or at least tie in this central Mpls district, and he received 1/3 of Franken’s total. Despite vocal support from a small portion of the audience, Ciresi couldn’t manage more than 2 delegates.
Full disclosure: I’m one of the Franken delegates from SD60, from the Obama / Franken sub-caucus
In SD 67 (St. Paul East Side) there were about 250 voting delegates left by the time the subcaucusing started. The results were:
Ciresi 3
JNP 3
Franken 7
Uncommitted 1
Ciresi’s only hope is to block the endorsement of Franken or Nelson-Palmeyer and try to buy the nomination in the primary pumping in a few million more of his own dollars.
The Franken Campaign went through a lot of money early on. Much of that money was raised outside the borders of the State of Minnesota.
Mike Ciresi has campaigned for US Senate before; I think that he has an active but balanced life.
He has a very successful law firm, and DONATES large sums of money through the public and private foundations that he help set up for that purpose.
Mike’s father was a first generation immigrant; his mother died of breast cancer when Mike was twelve. Mike knows that there are some things that persons don’t just buy.
Mike is an attorney - and a successful one.
Al has been successful at satire; I would think that Jack has been successful in his field as a professor at St. Thomas University and other similar postions that he has held. [Mike is on the University of St. Thomas Board.]
SD 62 results (at Roosevelt High in South Mpls):
subcaucuses including Franken in the name — 13
subcaucuses including Ciresi in the name - 1
subcaucuses including Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer in the name — 10
other subcaucuses: 4 (JNP and Franken probably have some delegates among those 4 subcaucuses without US Senate names attached, but Ciresi doesn’t have any, as far as I could tell.)
sd 64 results were, roughly:
franken 12
nelson-pallmeyer 6
ciresi 5
und 3
franken has been working for years and it’s paying off. and his campaign staff is polished and focused on the right stuff. franken had the numbers to begin with and then picked up 4 out of 5 remainder delegates. jnp has some nice grassroots energy, but no veteran organizers. it looks over to me - similar to cd 3.
i’m excited and positive in general but man we’re taking lots of leaps of faith this year.
So, stupid question time….just where is this vaunted massive support Ciresi entered this race to the demands of? I’m just unsure of the whole rationale for his candidacy.
I see JNP as having strong support in urban areas and, from what I was told, up around Duluth. He seems to have that strong rationale for his candidacy. Just not sure on Ciresi. Anyone have an idea bout this?
Results from SD 64
Franken 12
Nelson-Pallmeyer 6
Ciresi 5
Uncommitted 3
At SD 50, there were two state convention contests, one for the parts of SD50 in CD4 and one for the part in CD5.
On the CD5 side:
Franken 6
Uncommitted 2
Nelson-Pallmeyer 1
I didn’t get the totals for the CD4 side, but they also have 9 delegates that were up for grabs.
Matt,
Why are you texting random people and asking for their email addresses? This seems very much like an interstate fraud that you’re perpetrating…
We have contacted the Pennsylvania and Minnesota State bar committees asking them for an investigation.