No, this is not a joke, dirty or otherwise. This is a 21st century techie way to winkle out every last voter you need to win an election. It is how Al Franken won his US Senate seat in Minnesota, and why he watched so calmly over the long recount, certain he was going to win, according to DailyKos, http://www.dailykos.com/story/... scoop-on-how-Franken-knew-he-was-going-to-win
When Franken entered the race he had high name recognition, but there were some serious challenges as well: offsetting the name recognition advantage were his high negatives, he was up against a well-funded entrenched incumbent so there were very few undecided voters from early on, and there was what they called the Obama Deficit. The Obama Deficit refers to voters who said they had voted for Obama but were undecided in the Senate race, or were going to support the incumbent or someone else, not Al Franken. How did Franken target this demographic successfully?
Before Arlen Specter's Party switch announcement yesterday, the Senate's Democratic caucus stood at 58 members. Senator-elect Al Franken represented Democrats' 59th vote toward cloture, still short of reliably ending Republican filibusters. But now, with Specter joining the Democratic caucus, Senator-elect Franken represents the big 6-0, which is why Republicans will redouble their efforts to delay Senator-elect Franken's seating - and why we in the netroots must redouble our efforts to send obstructionist Republicans a message and also provide them with adequate disincentive from delaying Senator-elect Franken's seating any further.
Since the "One Dollar a Day to Make Norm Coleman Go Away" effort started just a couple weeks ago, about $40,000 has been raised to remind the Republicans funding Norm Coleman's endless appeals that, for every single day that they delay the implementation of the will of Minnesota voters, progressive voters will raise money to use against these Republicans on Election Day 2010.
Your support will strengthen that message!
Norm Coleman and his fellow Republicans recently scored a success in further delaying Senator-elect Franken's seating, as the trial schedule adopted by the state Supreme Court for Coleman's appeal is such that oral arguments before the Court won't begin until June 1st, over a month from now. Further, although Minnesota election policy dictates that Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty must prepare and sign Senator-elect Franken's election certificate once the state Supreme Court hands down its decision, Pawlenty has hemmed and hawed as to whether he would follow state election policy accordingly.
With a D next to Arlen Specter's name, Republicans will go full force to block Senator-elect Franken's seating. Please join us in eliminating Republicans' incentive to delay Senator-elect Franken's seating any further by taking part in the "One Dollar a Day to Make Norm Coleman Go Away" effort. At right is video of the segment on MSNBC's Hardball highlighting the effort.
Even in Virginia, I'm sure you've heard plenty about what's going on with the still-unsettled Senate race in Minnesota.
While Republican Norm Coleman prolongs his endless and pointless appeals, cementing his admission into the Sore Losers Hall of Fame, progressive organizations Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have introduced a new effort: NormDollar.com, "A Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away." Very simply put, commit to contributing just one dollar per day for every day that sore loser Norm Coleman refuses to concede.
This is exactly the correct approach to take in order to provide Republican leadership in Washington with adequate disincentive from continuing to fund Coleman's endless appeals. The GOP bigwigs funding Coleman's appeals see value in putting their money toward keeping progressive Senator-elect Al Franken from being seated. This grassroots-powered effort will make them think twice by generating many thousands of dollars for progressive candidates for every single day that they fund the Coleman circus.
If you feel so inclined, you can certainly chip in a bit of change directly to the Franken Recount Fund, as well.
The long Minnesota ordeal may be over. We've just learned that Al Franken is still up in his bid for the still-vacant Minnesota Senate seat. Politco reports here that:
Of the 351 absentee ballots added to the official tally, Franken picked up 198 votes, Coleman picked up 111, and the remaining 42 ballots were for "other" third-party candidates.
Before these ballots were included, Franken held a 225-vote lead over Coleman at the end of the recount process.
The significance of this is that, even if the Election Court eventually grants both of Coleman's requests on appeal, it would not change the outcome. Coleman's two requests are not supported by evidence. But were they granted, they would only add about 233 votes to his column. Franken would still win. Previously, just last week, Coleman also lost another round of advocating for disqualified ballots.
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