WODELE SLAMS FRANKEN
Franken's PAC a Prelude to Senate Bid
He still wants you to send your money to him, Al Franken.
But unlike when he used to solicit money for himself from the "Saturday Night Live" news desk, now he wants it for his new political action committee, Midwest Values PAC - and possibly even for a 2008 Senate bid.
"This is using my sort of prominence - leveraging that to get people involved in doing grass-roots stuff," Franken explained in an interview last week, shortly after he wrapped up his three-hour-a-day radio show on Air America.
And is raising $168,000 in 2005 and dispersing it to Democratic candidates a way to seed a Senate bid?
"I think that's a fair inference to draw," said the Minnesota native who recently moved his family, and his radio show, from New York City to the Gopher State in advance of a possible Senate race. "Obviously if I'm going to run in 2008 I will have to have done certain kinds of things but if I don't, I might as well do something good. This is really about getting people ... a progressive infrastructure built."
Midwest Values, which Franken created in late October 2005, has so far given money to three Democratic Congressional candidates in Minnesota, and to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ex-Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas), who is challenging Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), and Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate in the special election to replace disgraced ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.).
The PAC will also donate money to Wellstone Action, the Minnesota-based training program for Democratic activists formed by the surviving children of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), and will help out candidates for state and local offices in the Gopher State, Franken said.
Celebrity candidates are always helped and hindered by their fame, and Franken would be no exception. But Minnesota Democrats give Franken credit for being more than just a Hollywood-type who likes to talk politics occasionally.
"He has been a tremendous friend to Democrats and Democratic organizations out in Minnesota for the last four or five years," said one Democratic organizer in Minnesota who did not want to be named because he did not want to be seen as endorsing any particular candidate for Senate.
Franken helped Wellstone on his 2002 re-election before the Senator died in a plane crash in the closing weeks of the campaign.
"In the last two years, he has been very active doing fundraisers, get-out-the-vote efforts, reaching out to Democrats," the source added. "He's a very interesting potential candidate."
Franken says no one can say he woke up one day and suddenly decided to run for Senate.
"I've actually known these local folks for a while," he said. "I campaigned for Wellstone a lot. Last cycle I did campaigning around the state; I raised money for the House Caucus. I made sure when I went to Boston [for the 2004 Democratic National Convention] that I spoke to the Minnesota delegation. I plan to try to be a delegate to the [state] convention myself" this year.
Franken understands that wooing the delegates who nominate Senate and Congressional candidates is key in Minnesota.
Minnesota's political parties have a system in which, via local caucuses, delegates are selected to district and eventually state conventions where candidates are endorsed. A contested primary occurs only if someone chooses to challenge that endorsement by running in the September primary.
"I will definitely try to get the endorsement," Franken said about his hypothetical Senate bid. "I haven't really thought through whether that's something that I would abide by. I will do everything I can to get it."
But before such party machinations come into play, the fundamental question surrounding a Franken candidacy is whether he will be taken seriously and whether he could unseat a professional politician such as Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.).
"The proof of whether you can lead is not about your celebrity, it's about your fundamental beliefs and whether you can take those out to the people and connect with them," said Minnesota-based consultant John Wodele.
Wodele should know. He served as spokesman to professional wrestler Jesse "the Body" Ventura (I) when Ventura became governor in 1998. "I don't think celebrity disqualifies you; I think celebrity gives you an opportunity, but you then have to prove yourself to the people."
Barry Casselman, a Minnesota-based political commentator, said Franken would not be the Democrats' best candidate.
"There are lots of men and women in the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party who have worked for years on behalf of their party and ideas, and I don't know if they are prepared to let some Johnny-come-lately come in and be the nominee for the important posts," Casselman said.
To that end, rumors have already begun about Minneapolis' Democratic Mayor R.T. Rybak and his political future. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune speculated last week that Rybak might be eyeing a 2008 Senate bid himself.
Beyond Democrats who feel entitled to move up the chain, Casselman said Franken "has done nothing to earn his political status," and that would hurt him.
Franken disputes that.
"I've been writing about politics, and anyone who listens to my show and reads my books knows that it's quite substantive," Franken said. "I didn't hear a lot of Republicans complaining when Arnold [Schwarzenegger] ran for governor [of California], and I don't run around naked shooting guns but I'm proud of my comedy."
In the interview, Franken also displayed a keen knowledge of politics in general and Minnesota in particular, speaking with authority on the ongoing Congressional races.
But a larger problem for Franken may be Ventura's legacy.
"The thing about Minnesota that is strange is this is a state that elected Jesse Ventura, [so] anything is possible," said one Democratic operative with Minnesota experience who did not want to be named. "But into his term I think a lot of people got so turned off about the celebrity-turned-politician that maybe people have soured on that. You just don't know how seriously folks are going to take him."
Franken acknowledged that Ventura blazed a trail - and that he may have burned everything behind him.
"I think it makes it harder because ultimately Jesse became really unpopular," Franken said. "It became about his personality; he became a kind of thin-skinned bully with a kind of obnoxious bravado.
"Who would have thought that you'd get that from a professional wrestler," Franken jokingly asked. "I probably couldn't be more different from Jesse Ventura."
Casselman warned that Franken's politics could prevent him from being a credible candidate.
"He has a genuine interest in politics and uses his celebrity to express political points of views just as Garrison Keillor [from National Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion"] does, but both of them have extreme points of view relative to the state of Minnesota," Casselman said.
Wodele sees the combination of Franken's fame and politics as troublesome.
"The comedy routine is problematic. It doesn't matter if it's Al Franken or Garrison Keillor, the sort of cute, clever approach I don't think works in politics," he said. "I also don't think the combative approach works, and sometimes he's quite confrontational in his program.
"I think you have to have your own agenda and believe in it and not spend all your time tearing down the other person. I would suggest that if he wants to run, get out of radio," Woedele said.
The Democratic operative said it ultimately may come down to political will.
"I think the No. 1 factor is going to be the [Democratic] bench, and with that bench do people have the chutzpah to challenge a sitting Senator?" he asked. "With Franken you may have someone with nothing to lose." Source: ">Roll Call, February 13, 2004
He still wants you to send your money to him, Al Franken.
But unlike when he used to solicit money for himself from the "Saturday Night Live" news desk, now he wants it for his new political action committee, Midwest Values PAC - and possibly even for a 2008 Senate bid.
"This is using my sort of prominence - leveraging that to get people involved in doing grass-roots stuff," Franken explained in an interview last week, shortly after he wrapped up his three-hour-a-day radio show on Air America.
And is raising $168,000 in 2005 and dispersing it to Democratic candidates a way to seed a Senate bid?
"I think that's a fair inference to draw," said the Minnesota native who recently moved his family, and his radio show, from New York City to the Gopher State in advance of a possible Senate race. "Obviously if I'm going to run in 2008 I will have to have done certain kinds of things but if I don't, I might as well do something good. This is really about getting people ... a progressive infrastructure built."
Midwest Values, which Franken created in late October 2005, has so far given money to three Democratic Congressional candidates in Minnesota, and to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ex-Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas), who is challenging Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), and Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate in the special election to replace disgraced ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.).
The PAC will also donate money to Wellstone Action, the Minnesota-based training program for Democratic activists formed by the surviving children of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), and will help out candidates for state and local offices in the Gopher State, Franken said.
Celebrity candidates are always helped and hindered by their fame, and Franken would be no exception. But Minnesota Democrats give Franken credit for being more than just a Hollywood-type who likes to talk politics occasionally.
"He has been a tremendous friend to Democrats and Democratic organizations out in Minnesota for the last four or five years," said one Democratic organizer in Minnesota who did not want to be named because he did not want to be seen as endorsing any particular candidate for Senate.
Franken helped Wellstone on his 2002 re-election before the Senator died in a plane crash in the closing weeks of the campaign.
"In the last two years, he has been very active doing fundraisers, get-out-the-vote efforts, reaching out to Democrats," the source added. "He's a very interesting potential candidate."
Franken says no one can say he woke up one day and suddenly decided to run for Senate.
"I've actually known these local folks for a while," he said. "I campaigned for Wellstone a lot. Last cycle I did campaigning around the state; I raised money for the House Caucus. I made sure when I went to Boston [for the 2004 Democratic National Convention] that I spoke to the Minnesota delegation. I plan to try to be a delegate to the [state] convention myself" this year.
Franken understands that wooing the delegates who nominate Senate and Congressional candidates is key in Minnesota.
Minnesota's political parties have a system in which, via local caucuses, delegates are selected to district and eventually state conventions where candidates are endorsed. A contested primary occurs only if someone chooses to challenge that endorsement by running in the September primary.
"I will definitely try to get the endorsement," Franken said about his hypothetical Senate bid. "I haven't really thought through whether that's something that I would abide by. I will do everything I can to get it."
But before such party machinations come into play, the fundamental question surrounding a Franken candidacy is whether he will be taken seriously and whether he could unseat a professional politician such as Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.).
"The proof of whether you can lead is not about your celebrity, it's about your fundamental beliefs and whether you can take those out to the people and connect with them," said Minnesota-based consultant John Wodele.
Wodele should know. He served as spokesman to professional wrestler Jesse "the Body" Ventura (I) when Ventura became governor in 1998. "I don't think celebrity disqualifies you; I think celebrity gives you an opportunity, but you then have to prove yourself to the people."
Barry Casselman, a Minnesota-based political commentator, said Franken would not be the Democrats' best candidate.
"There are lots of men and women in the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party who have worked for years on behalf of their party and ideas, and I don't know if they are prepared to let some Johnny-come-lately come in and be the nominee for the important posts," Casselman said.
To that end, rumors have already begun about Minneapolis' Democratic Mayor R.T. Rybak and his political future. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune speculated last week that Rybak might be eyeing a 2008 Senate bid himself.
Beyond Democrats who feel entitled to move up the chain, Casselman said Franken "has done nothing to earn his political status," and that would hurt him.
Franken disputes that.
"I've been writing about politics, and anyone who listens to my show and reads my books knows that it's quite substantive," Franken said. "I didn't hear a lot of Republicans complaining when Arnold [Schwarzenegger] ran for governor [of California], and I don't run around naked shooting guns but I'm proud of my comedy."
In the interview, Franken also displayed a keen knowledge of politics in general and Minnesota in particular, speaking with authority on the ongoing Congressional races.
But a larger problem for Franken may be Ventura's legacy.
"The thing about Minnesota that is strange is this is a state that elected Jesse Ventura, [so] anything is possible," said one Democratic operative with Minnesota experience who did not want to be named. "But into his term I think a lot of people got so turned off about the celebrity-turned-politician that maybe people have soured on that. You just don't know how seriously folks are going to take him."
Franken acknowledged that Ventura blazed a trail - and that he may have burned everything behind him.
"I think it makes it harder because ultimately Jesse became really unpopular," Franken said. "It became about his personality; he became a kind of thin-skinned bully with a kind of obnoxious bravado.
"Who would have thought that you'd get that from a professional wrestler," Franken jokingly asked. "I probably couldn't be more different from Jesse Ventura."
Casselman warned that Franken's politics could prevent him from being a credible candidate.
"He has a genuine interest in politics and uses his celebrity to express political points of views just as Garrison Keillor [from National Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion"] does, but both of them have extreme points of view relative to the state of Minnesota," Casselman said.
Wodele sees the combination of Franken's fame and politics as troublesome.
"The comedy routine is problematic. It doesn't matter if it's Al Franken or Garrison Keillor, the sort of cute, clever approach I don't think works in politics," he said. "I also don't think the combative approach works, and sometimes he's quite confrontational in his program.
"I think you have to have your own agenda and believe in it and not spend all your time tearing down the other person. I would suggest that if he wants to run, get out of radio," Woedele said.
The Democratic operative said it ultimately may come down to political will.
"I think the No. 1 factor is going to be the [Democratic] bench, and with that bench do people have the chutzpah to challenge a sitting Senator?" he asked. "With Franken you may have someone with nothing to lose." Source: ">Roll Call, February 13, 2004
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