A lot of things went under the radar the last couple days, I felt we needed a round up.
Starting with the last outstanding race of the 2008 elections, MN-Sen. After two days of going through the Franken challenges, (with the exception of a few Coleman challenges that were incidentally found in the mix) this is where the counting stands: http://senaterecount.startribu…
Of 411 ballots that have been reviewed so far, Coleman is +234 votes, Franken is +64 votes, and Other is +117. Franken had a high success rate (around 17% by most estimates) which is higher than predictions have been. It is hard to say how many of those challenges exactly Franken won, because the other category consists of votes Franken won, taking away from Coleman and votes that Franken lost, not moving toward Franken.
There are around 4,000 withdrawn challenges that need to be counted and added to the SOS website tally. Those are said to be reported when they are finished being counted. There are an estimated 1,600 wrongfully rejected absentee ballots that are hung up in the Minnesota Supreme Court to be ruled on in the near future. And an estimated 700 Coleman challenges to sort through over the coming days. (Coleman may bring “duplicate ballots” to court. They are contending not all the ballots counted during the recount had an original. This would open a whole can of worms because both campaigns challenged 600 ballots total over this while some counties didn’t let them challenge ballots over this.)
The next race with news, FL-Sen. Alex Sink is jumping through the hoops of a probable candidate. Many will remember news reports of Mark Begich and Jeff Merkley doing exactly what sink did before becoming candidates:
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the only Democrat serving in Florida’s Cabinet, met recently in Washington with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the chamber’s point man for the 2010 election. She’s clearly the national party’s top choice to run for the seat to be vacated by Republican Sen. Mel Martinez.
Article found here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com…
If I had to make a prediction, I would assume Alex Sink waits until we hear what Jeb Bush decides about a senate race in Florida before announcing whether she plans to run for senate.
Next on the line is KS-Sen. Brownback is making his retirement from the senate official tomorrow. Article found here: http://briefingroom.thehill.co…
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) won’t seek reelection in 2010 and will explore a run for governor.
He plans to announce his retirement from the Senate on Thursday, reports CNN. Brownback joined the Senate in 1996, succeeding former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R). He has long been a supporter of term limits, and he had pledged to serve only two full terms.
As for NH-Sen:
while popular Gov. John Lynch (D) is also said to be looking into the race.
Here: http://www.rollcall.com/news/3… You need a a subscription for the article.
I wouldn’t put much stock into a governor considering a senate race. He will probably just fall back on running for governor. I doubt Menendez can sweet talk him out of it.
What do you guys think? Also recent news I made a comment on but didn’t get much attention, Brad Miller pulled himself out of consideration from NC-Sen in 2010. http://www.wral.com/news/state…
It seems like the MN Canvassing Board hasn’t given the candidates a deadline to make their challenges final. So we saw reports of Coleman’s side un-unchallenging ballots once they watched the Board in action on Tuesday.
I’m guessing that the subset of challenged ballots on which the campaigns do not ask for Board rulings isn’t finalized until the Board adjourns on Friday…meaning we still have 4000+ unchallenged (or un-un-unchallenged, as the case may be) ballots to add back into the totals over the weekend.
Absentee ballots, that’s another matter…up to the Supreme Court and its timeline. Franken’s attorney made a good argument why absentees need to be settled concurrently with the challenges, hopefully that carries weight with the court.
US Attorney Troy Eid and Attorney General John Suthers are looking at the 2010 race against whomever is appointed to fill Senator Salazar’s seat:
Troy Eid has been talking about running for office in Colorado forever, and is even considering the 2010 Governor’s race and a race against Rep. Perlmutter in CD-7 if this doesn’t work out.
Suthers, however, is boring as all get up, but he’s been a competent AG, and has some significant accomplishments that have gotten accolades from the Dems as well. He’s probably the Republicans best chance to take the seat, and wouldn’t be the embarrassment in the Senate that Eid or, God Forbid, Tancredo might be.
Is down to a meniscule 5 votes and Franken will almost assuredly pass him tomorrow.