From Politico today.
The Republicans are so disenchanted with this election cycle and the tactics of John “I absolutely suck at being NRSC Chair” Ensign that they’re already looking ahead at 2010 to salvage the party brand. Interestingly enough, both names in contention to take over for Ensign, who has stated clearly that he does not intend to retain this role, are running for reelection: Texas’ John Cornyn, and Minnesota’s Norm Coleman.
Now why should this concern anyone on SSP or in the Netroots community? Despite Coleman having lackluster poll ratings at home and in danger of losing to a comedic figure like Al Franken (who is starting to rebuild his image after his previous controversies about taxes and women), Coleman is actually a pretty good fundraiser. What alarmed me was this quote from the article.
In this election cycle, Coleman – a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. – has raised 55 percent of his donations from outside his home state of Minnesota, with significant chunks of his $13.1 million for the 2008 cycle coming from the Democratic money centers of New York, California and Florida, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations.
Coleman maintaining a 55-45 split in fundraising between outside and inside Minnesota isn’t really a big deal for this crucial Senate race this November (I’m sure Franken has similar numbers for his funds). But it shows he has connections within blue states that could be an advantage to the GOP.
Also, Republicans have been a Texas based party for 8 years, and they may be suffering Lone Star fatigue. John Cornyn may be able to raise big amounts of cash too, but he does it within Texas and has little experience of accumulating a national financial war chest.
I know what SSP and all the other sites think of Norm, but he’s got a fresh Midwestern face that could give the GOP a boost in the 2010 midterm elections, due to his geographic location and network of fundraisers. Chuck Schumer may be invincible but I wouldn’t take my chances.
So here you go, sports fans. Another reason to take out Norm Coleman in November.
I think one way you can help do that is to donate to Al Franken. Either here or here
To all from Minnesota, just how effective is ol’ Norm at raising vast amounts of money for election campaigns?
Franken has drastically different numbers. He has only raised 17.8% of his money from Minnesota. (It’s basically the one lingering issue I have with his campaign)
Hell, when good ole Chuck finally decides to call it quits, Franken should be in charge DSCC. The fundraising he could do would be immense. Although I doubt he has the political know-how to run it. But he should be in charge of fundraising.