Senate candidates in barnstorming stage

Only seven days out from the day of decision all three candidates in Minnesota's red-hot Senate race are running at full speed.

Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken spent Tuesday barnstorming, while Independence Party candidate Dean Barkley shot his first TV ad.

Governor Tim Pawlenty slapped a red Norm Coleman sticker on his yellow sweater as he followed the Republican incumbent into a restaurant in Inver Grove Heights. The governor accompanied Coleman on several stops in the Twin Cities area.

"I can tell you Norm Coleman has a good heart," Pawlenty told the breakfast crowd, augmented by a group of students from a local private school.

"He's a good person, with good judgment and good wisdom and experience."

Experience was the overriding rhetorical theme for both the second-term Governor and his fellow Republican.

"I believe he's one of the most distinguished, most accomplished, senators who's focused on getting things done," Pawlenty told the group as he introduced the candidate.

Senator Coleman joked of three miracles: falling gas prices, a 7-1 record for the Golden Gophers, and a nod from a certain newspaper's editorial board.

"And I got endorsed by the Minneapolis Tribune, okay? Complete miracles! Three miracles!"

But lest he be confused with an actual comedian, Coleman reminded the cafe crowd the job he hopes to keep involves serious business.

"The measure of responsibility that one has, the opportunity to impact people's lives in a way that's hard even to conceive even being there," Coleman remarked, "But that's what I deal with and I'm humbled to do it."

Franken on the move

In Saint Paul Hamline Unversity students crowded into a coffee shop near campus to catch Democrat Al Franken in action.

Senator Amy Klobuchar told the gathering it's not enough for them to elect Senator Barack Obama to the White House. She said they need to work equally hard for Franken, to give Obama a filibuster-proof majority of 60 Democrats in the Senate.

"Senate Republicans filibustered a record 94 times in the past two years," Senator Klobuchar said, "But what we really need to get Barack's plan through is a Senate that's going to be able to work with him."

Political pundits couldn't help but notice that one of the other warm-up speakers was Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Saint Paul. Her comments six months ago, reacting against some of Franken's past comedy work, is still be used in attack ads against him.

An early supporter of Franken's DFL rival Michael Ciresi, McCollum in April publicly condemned what Franken said in a 1995 magazine describing a 60 Minutes spoof on the drawing board at Saturday Night Live. The skit was never performed.

But on Tuesday McCollum and Franken embraced, as he took the stage and prepared to deliver an old-fashioned stem winder in the tradition of the late Senator Paul Wellstone.

"Everybody can reach for something meaningful in their lives and pass on a better life to their kids!" Franken told the throng of 20-somethings, "That's what America's about, that's America's promise! That's our promise!"

He told them he looked forward to joining Klobuchar on Capitol Hill and going to work changing the priorities in Washington.

"I need you making phone calls; I need you talking your friends' ears off," Franken said, "Most of all I need you to vote. Vote for working families, vote for the middle class, vote for change, because this is the year that we take our country back!"

Maverick magic?

The man carrying the Independence Party banner, former Senator Dean Barkley, spent his afternoon in a farm field near Belle Plaine shooting his first broadcast TV ad.

"It's not going to be negative," Barkley explained, "It's going to be a positive message about why people should vote for me and I think people will like what they see."

The spot's being produced by Bill Hillsman's team at North Woods Advertising, the same creative mind behind Jesse Ventura's groundbreaking ads in 1998. Eight years earlier Hillsman's magic touch helped propel underdog college professor Paul Wellstone into the Senate.

"This ad will have a little humor," Barkley explained, "Bill Hillsman always likes a little humor so we'll have a little of that."

He's hoping the ads will help him peak at the same point Ventura did in 1998, in the weekend before the election. He realizes that outspending the front runners is not in the cards.

"Al and Norm have spent $40 million trying to close the deal and they haven't done it yet," Barkley told KARE, "I've spent $50,000 and I'm within striking range."

He added, "I think that tells you a lot about what's happening in this race. I think anything can happen on November 4th."

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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