Almanac: At the Capitol

I just sat down with Al Franken for a one-on-one interview about his financial problems. We'll have some clips tonight on Almanac: At the Capitol and more Friday on Almanac. He said "yesterday was the best day of the campaign" because his staff and supporters rallied. Franken says they contacted most of the delegates and virtually every one said the recent news was not a problem.

Franken is not ready to get out of this race and he'd be surprised if Walz or Ciresi gets in. He intends on winning the endorsement and the Senate seat. When I asked about word at the Capitol saying there's more trouble for Franken he squarely said "will there be some small error somewhere to surface, maybe" but he thinks they did a fast but thorough "scrub" of his financial records.

Overall, Franken was relaxed and funny off camera. He gave us a tour of the headquarters showing us where volunteers were working the phones furiously for him. Check out more on our air tonight (tpt17 7pm & tpt2 10pm).

There's a lot of talk about other Democrats who may enter the race to challenge Al Franken. The first obvious name is Mike Ciresi who could not be reached directly but his people and lots of others are chatting with him about re-entering the U.S. Senate race. Ciresi has money and infrastructure that wouldn't be too difficult to re-start.

The other big name is Congressman Tim Walz. Democrats love the idea of Walz for higher office, many were thinking governor could be the next step, but then they run the risk of losing the first district to Republicans. It's a risk some DFLers may be willing to take. They want the Senate race more than one congressional seat.

Time is a factor. The DFL State Convention is just a month away and delegates would like to leave squarely behind one candidate. Dems I've talked to are also privately outraged that Franken's campaign didn't scrub the record before launching such a major campaign. He certainly has the money. Word around the Capitol is that Franken's troubles are not over either. It it good that he's talking rather than getting in a bunker mode which campaigns can do under fire. I think Minnesotans like to see someone come clean, admit a mistake. But a week or two should reveal if Franken will survive or if other Democrats try to challenge him.

Other names that are being talked about include: R.T. Rybak, Tom Bakk, Tarryl Clark. Let us know what you're hearing.

It's all about jobs. It seemed regardless of the issue, the cause is jobs. Everybody wants jobs, everyone likes jobs. Jobs are non-partisan, right? Well that depends.

Today, the Mall of America did a full court press at the Capitol. Their cause is the MOA Phase II expansion. But, you guessed it, it was about jobs. It was an expertly crafted media event. Babies holding signs for jobs. Big tough guys looking emotional holding signs for jobs. A who's who of legislative leadership spoke at a press conference and rally. The question is if the MOA money will get past House Tax Chair Ann Lenczewski and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

The other big jobs event had to do with another hearing about the Northwest Airlines merger. In Rep. Joe Atkin's committee, workers sat with more (and different) jobs posters. Many in the Capitol wonder if Atkins might be running for a new job himself, governor? Tomorrow hearings continue in the Senate, without big names coming, it's frankly hard for reporters to get too excited. But we do love JOBS!

Many of us in the Capitol press corps haven't had the time or space to fully cover Al Franken's financial problems. The reporters who are most likely to cover politics are based in the Capitol and we're heading into crunch time at the Capitol with less than three weeks now for lawmakers to pass bills. Capitol policy usually trumps politics for us. But over the weekend I had several normal non-partisan people ask me if Franken is in trouble. I don't know, nor would I venture an answer. *Update: Okay, Franken is now probably in real trouble with the AP revelations about him owing $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states.

What I was surprised at was that so much of this information is coming out during a legislative session. Republicans would have likely gotten more ink or airtime after session when there are fewer demands on our time. We're often covering several events simultaneously and there's a lot of news to choose from. In one of his many Capitol visits lately, I talked to Republican Party Chair Ron Carey about this today. He said the timing isn't strategic, he's just revealing the information as they're uncovering it. Carey admitted he'd rather Franken had "locked and loaded" the nomination, but they weren't planning to hold anything back.

What Democrats and Republicans have told me is that Republicans have more people and money assigned to opposition research. I've heard DFLers quietly complaining that the party needs to ramp up its opposition research and have staffers working on it full time.

Gov. Pawlenty's veto pen was active again as he vetoed several interesting items, but word arrived as the weekend began so they got little coverage. Deadlines have moved up for a lot of news organizations. At the same time MSM interest in State Capitol news dwindles. We tried to ask when a veto message might arrive to plan ahead, but got no response from the governor's office.

Anyway, for those who missed it, the governor vetoed a transportation bill containing a REAL ID opt-out for the state. For the record that's the second transportation bill the governor vetoed and a third and maybe even fourth one could be coming too. Pawlenty said the "federal government's response is not complete or finalized. Until it is, we should be careful not to unduly restrict our ability to at least begin preparations for implementing REAL I.D." As I indicated last week, there's bi-partisan support for this bill against the governor and led by libertarian or conservative Republicans. The question is if they'll negotiate a new deal or attempt an override led by conservative Republicans.

Pawlenty also vetoed a resolution urging congress to end trade and travel restrictions to Cuba. Again he deferred to the federal government saying "our federal government should address foreign policy matters, not state legislators." Many online have speculated this move is to curry favor with McCain.

Finally, the governor also vetoed a bill granting political subdivisions authority to give grants to nonprofits. Pawlenty says he believes in supporting charitable organizations, but local elected officials should focus on lowering property taxes and give the money to people to decide.