Democrats May Join Minnesota Fray
Roll Call Staff
Senate Democratic leaders are leaving open the possibility of inserting themselves into the Minnesota Senate race if Sen. Norm Coleman (R) prevails and Democratic challenger Al Franken protests the results.
A statewide recount has been completed and rulings await on thousands of disputed ballots. Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) would not rule out the possibility that they would entertain a protest of the results, which Franken has indicated he might file with the Senate.
“Let’s wait and see what happens. Let’s not prejudge it,” Schumer said late last week when asked whether he believed the Senate would seat Coleman if Franken contested the state’s certification.
A bipartisan review board is set over the next two weeks to rule on 6,655 ballots challenged by the Coleman and Franken campaigns during a statewide hand recount that was completed Friday. Democratic leaders have not said as much, but agreeing to review any protest of the election could ultimately lead to a Senate vote on whether to seat Franken over Coleman.
A move by the Senate to overturn Minnesota’s certified results would be unusual. There have been only five instances in the past 100 years in which a Senator has not been seated or been ousted over an election challenge, according to the Senate Historian’s Office.
Schumer declined to address whether he would recuse himself from the process of reviewing any protest that Franken might file in the likely event that the New Yorker ends up as the next chairman of the Rules and Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over any election probes.
“I’m not Rules Committee chairman. I’m not going to answer a hypothetical,” he said.
With current Rules Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) likely to take over the Intelligence Committee, Schumer is next in line and is expected to take the Rules gavel. Senate Democrats have not officially announced their chairmanship picks.
Like Schumer, Reid is leaving his options open. His spokesman Jim Manley was vague when asked whether his boss was inclined to accept a Coleman victory certified by Minnesota in the face of a request by Franken that he be seated instead. Still, Manley’s comments appeared to suggest that Reid might be interested in accepting Franken’s protest, if it comes.
“As the process moves forward, Sen. Reid will be watching to make sure that the proper authorities in Minnesota are looking very carefully to make sure that no voter is disenfranchised,” Manley said. “A very important principle is at stake here, and that is a citizen’s right to have his or her vote counted.”
Reid made a similar statement just before Thanksgiving, after state officials denied Franken’s request to include rejected absentee ballots in the recount. Majority Whip Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) office declined to comment for this story.
The day after the Nov. 4 elections, Coleman led Franken by about 700 votes out of nearly 4 million cast. Following the completion of a statewide canvass of voting machine tabulations required by Minnesota law following every election, Coleman’s lead shrunk to 215.
At press time Friday, with the mandated statewide recount complete, Coleman’s lead appeared to be holding. The Minnesota secretary of state’s office was reporting a Coleman lead of 687 votes with virtually all precincts reporting, absent the ballots being challenged and 133 others that might have gone missing from one Minneapolis precinct.
It’s expected that Coleman, the first-term Senator and former St. Paul mayor, will be certified the winner over his comedian and liberal talk-show host opponent following the bipartisan board’s ruling. But what happens next would be Franken’s choice.
Marc Elias, the Franken campaign’s recount attorney, confirmed last week that filing a protest with the Senate is an option under consideration. “Those are things we would look at,” Elias said Tuesday. He added that he had not talked to anyone on the Senate Rules Committee and was focused for now on the recount process.
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