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Minnesota's US Senate candidate profiles: Al Franken
"I like my coffee strong," Franni Franken told KARE-TV on a recent night in the Franken kitchen in downtown Minneapolis. "She likes it ridiculously strong!" her husband of 33 years, and the Democratic senate candidate, Al Franken quipped as he walked past her at the kitchen counter. When she begged to differ, Franken looked into the camera and playfully shook his head. That daily debate over how to brew the coffee was the example they offered when asked what issues they haven't quite resolved yet. You might say the Frankens have agreed to disagree on the little things, but joining forces on the stage of big time politics in a rough and tumble senate race, is something that comes natural to the couple. A family affair "I believe in Al," Franni Franken remarked, "I've known him for 39 years so I know him through and through. He's just as adorable today as he was in 1969 the day I met him!" The candidate added that they've shared the same values and goals. "Franni and I agree that when you have kids either they're the focus of your life or they aren't," Franken told KARE, "And both of us made the kids the focus of our lives." The grown children, Joe and Thomasin, have often joined their parents on stage at large events. Thomasin, took a leave from her teaching job to volunteer for the campaign. In fact, on one occasion she was called to the lectern to help answer a question. "Don't people think of you as a Hollywood outsider," a photojournalist asked Franken. He tapped Thomasin on the shoulder and asked, "Honey how long did you live in Hollywood?" "I never lived in Hollywood!" she replied, prompting a burst of laughter from her dad. He then added, "I grew up in Minnesota, my parents lived in Minnesota until they passed away." Growing up Minnesotan Franken reflects fondly on his own childhood, spent mostly in St. Louis Park in a family that valued both humor and politics. "We had a modest home, two-bedroom, one-bath house," he said, "but I felt like the luckiest kid in the world because I was. I was growing up middle class in Minnesota, in St. Louis Park, in America at the height of the middle class." That upbringing impressed upon Franken a firm belief that government can be a force for good. "You know, that kind of mainstream American liberal bent." He's never denied he's a liberal. "I think most Americans are," he explained, "I think if you believe in Social Security then you're a liberal, if you believe in Medicare you're a liberal. More people are liberal than call themselves that." But in his sometimes rocky road to Election Day, Franken's political leanings have often taken a back seat to things he said and wrote in his past career in comedy and political satire. He rose to fame as a writer and performer on NBC's Saturday Night Live, appearing in memorable recurring bits such as the one-man-mobile-news unit. He also created the self-help character Stuart Smalley. After he left SNL in 1996, Franken morphed into a political commentator, best selling author and fundraiser for Democrats including the late Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. In 2004 he launched Air America, the liberal counter punch to conservative talk radio and FOX News. Franken, who originally saw the need to invade Iraq, grew into a strong critic of the prolonged American presence there. He visited troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan several times as part of the USO. In 2005 he moved the Al Franken show to Minneapolis, fueling speculation he would run against Senator Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent and former mayor of Saint Paul. "People say don't run for the senate it will be a nightmare," Franken told KARE in 2005, "That only makes me want to do it more." On Valentine's Day 2007, Franken announced to his radio audience he'd be signing off for good, so he could run for the senate. He jumped in with both feet, with only one word of advice from Franni. "Be yourself," she recalled, "You can't take the Al out of Al." Trial by Fire But Republicans moved quickly to define Al Franken in terms far different than Franni sees him. "Over the top angry liberal," were the words state Republican Party chairman Ron Carey used the day after Franken made his run official. "Well," Franken said when told of the comment, "I'm definitely liberal, but not overly liberal." In the ensuing months Franken raised huge sums of money, and did the grassroots work across the state to garner a commanding lead in delegates. By the time the DFL state convention arrived in June of 2008, he was the solid frontrunner. Trial attorney Mike Ciresi had left the race in early April, and progressive college professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer trailed Franken by a two-to-one margin in pledged delegates. But, by then, some Democrats were questioning Franken's electability. The state GOP party, and Republican bloggers, had put the Franken campaign on the defensive over a lapse in workers compensation insurance premiums by Al Franken Incorporated in New York. The Franken's had barely taken care of that issue, when Republicans revealed tax issues dating back to the year 2003. Instead of paying state income taxes in every state where he gave a speech or performance, Franken paid state income taxes only in the states where he lived, in New York and later Minnesota. He learned, through the GOP probe, that he was actually responsible for paying state income taxes in 17 other states. "Franni and I relied on our accountant, and he made a mistake," Franken told reporters in April, "And I am fixing it and making it right." The new accountants he hired totaled up exactly how much he owed the states, and Franken pledged to repay that. He also expected to receive refunds from Minnesota and New York, as an offset for taxes paid to other states. "We overpaid in New York and Minnesota and underpaid in those other states." Franken also moved to reinforce his connections to DFL women, after Republicans went public with a Playboy article Franken penned in 2000 entitled "Porn-o-Rama," and remarks he made to New York Magazine in 1995 about an idea a fellow SNL staffer had for a skit. In the days leading up to the state convention, several members of Minnesota's Congressional delegation condemned those articles, and openly wondered whether the flap could harm their own chances at reelection. Although the Franken campaign initially dismissed it as a obvious effort by the other side to take attention away from the real issues and Coleman's record, fellow Democrats pressured their senate frontrunner to take it on directly. That led to a pivotal convention moment, which secured the party's endorsement for Franken. He said he was sad to learn that his past work could cause anyone to doubt his commitment to women. "I'm sorry for that," he said, setting off a huge round of applause in the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester. "In 35 years I wrote a lot of jokes," he noted, "Some of them weren't funny. Some of them weren't appropriate. Some of them were downright offensive." That controversy remained alive for Franken's critics, and in fact became ammunition for Twin Cities attorney Priscilla Lord Faris who challenged him in the September 10th primary. Franken kept his focus on Coleman throughout the summer, choosing not to debate Faris. But Faris talked about his Playboy article in her TV ads, and both Norm Coleman and national Republican groups used clips from the Faris spots in their own attack ads. Key Issues Franken prevailed in the primary, and continues to tell reporters that Minnesota voters would rather concentrate on issues that affect their lives. Universal health care remains one of his major goals, although he says he doubts Washington is ready to go with a single-payer, government run system. "Every other industrialized country in the world has universal health care, they cover everybody, and they do it for about half the cost per person that we do, and have better outcomes." Earlier in the campaign he also supported a plan allowing each state to create its own universal health care plan, and then use that experience to develop a national model. "I think we're going to have to come up with some kind of an American system, and Senator Obama has a plan now that I think is very workable," he said. On the question of Iraq, Franken believes it's time for an orderly pull-out with firm deadlines for the Iraqi government. "You set a timetable, or a time horizon as even President Bush has called it, and tell them we're going to leave." More regional diplomacy is called for too, he asserts. "I've been to Iraq four times, our troops are there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 15 months at a time," he exclaimed, "The least that the foreign ministers or the heads of state in that region can do is to be working around the clock to come up with some kind of regional settlement there." Franken's interview with KARE took place before the vote on the bailout, or the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, but in debates since then has often blamed the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress for laying the groundwork for the trauma in the financial system by failing to adequately regulate securities markets. "I was not for the bailout package," he told a debate audience, "But it passed and we have to hope that it works. I thought we were rushed into it. It didn't meet the criteria, which was to protect the taxpayers." Home stretch It hasn't been an easy run, but Franken is convinced he made the right move when he returned to Minnesota. "Because traveling around this state you meet so many wonderful people," he explained, "I mean it's really a privilege to do this. It really is a privilege to run for office."
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