MINNEAPOLIS -- When Sen. Al Franken exits the US Senate, he won't be the first Minnesota senate to leave before his term is finished.
In fact, Franken's departure is just the latest episode in the turbulent history of the seat he holds in the Senate.
"There is no doubt, in Senate elections, the history of this Senate seat has been more tumultuous," Kathryn Pearson, a University of Minnesota political science professor and Congressional politics expert, told KARE.
Some would invoke stronger language to describe it.
"So when you look at this seat, it's cursed!" Hamline University professor and political analyst David Schultz remarked.
"In the last 40 years, it is cursed by death, by close elections, by disputes in the court system, by allegations of sexual harassment!"
Franken's seat has been occupied in the past half century by Walter Mondale, Wendell Anderson, Rudy Boschwitz, Paul Wellstone, Dean Barkley -- for one month, Norm Coleman and Franken.
The sequence of unusual events began in 1976, when Walter Mondale became vice president. Then-Gov. Wendell Anderson found a round-about way to appoint himself to the Mondale's vacant seat, with an assist from Lt. Gov. Rudy Perpich.
"It was a case of quid pro quo, where it looks like Wendell Anderson made a deal with Rudy Perpich to say, 'I'm going to step down as governor, then you become governor, but then you have to name me as US Senator'," Schultz explained.
The backlash from voters to that unprecedented sequence of events was unmistakable.
In 1978 the Democrat Anderson lost to Republican Rudy Boschwitz. In fact, Republicans captured both US senate seats that year, plus the Governor's office and the State House.
It was described as "The Minnesota Massacre," a term that harkened back in a wry way to Anderson's signature school funding plan that had become known as "The Minnesota Miracle."
Boschwitz held onto the seat for 12 years, but was defeated by upstart college professor and political organizer Paul Wellstone in 1990. Wellstone, the DFL candidate, appeared in a series of groundbreaking TV ads casting himself as the underdog determined to out hustle the incumbent.
But Schultz said one of the key factors that cost Boschwitz the election was a campaign letter that questioned Wellstone's Jewish faith.
"This was on campaign letterhead, and it was a letter accusing Paul Wellstone of being a bad Jew and not faithful, and this backfires on Boschwitz."
Wellstone served two terms and was in a tough fight for a third one in 2002 when his plane crashed 11 days before the election. The senator, his wife and daughter, and five others were killed the crash, which shocked Minnesota and the nation.
Mondale agreed to stand in for Wellstone on the ticket, and there was a hurried legal battle to give absentee voters who had already mailed in votes for Wellstone to get new ballots so they could vote for Mondale.
In the midst of the ballot drama a nationally televised memorial took on an overtly political tone, a development that worked against Mondale and helped propel Republican Norm Coleman into office.
Franken, the former SNL cast member and writer, challenged Coleman in 2008. That epic race ended in an epic recount battle that ran until the end of June, when the Minnesota Supreme Court declared Franken the winner by 314 votes.
"Once again with this seat we've had resignations, a death, a sexual harassment scandal, and a very close litigation associated with this Senate seat," Schultz explained.
"If this Senate seat was a creature we'd need to drive a stake through it's heart."
Whether you believe in the curse theory or not, you can be sure the 2018 election will be riotous by political standards. Voters will be picking a 2-year senator, to fill the final two year's of Franken's term, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar's up for a third 6-year term.
The U's Pearson said voters should buckle their seatbelts and prepare for an advertising onslaught the likes of which they've never seen.
"We'll have two senate elections, a governor’s race, other statewide officials, and then with Minnesota’s 8-person congressional delegation, there's the potential for half of those seats to be some of the most competitive in the nation."