By JAKE SHERMAN
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Robust fund raising, especially from outside Minnesota, has propelled Democratic Senate hopeful Al Franken to a lead in the race for campaign cash this year and confirmed expectations that the 2008 Senate race will be costly and tough.
Franken plans to report fund raising of $1.9 million in the most recent quarter and nearly $3.3 million for the year, likely outpacing incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.
"Anybody who was writing off Al Franken can stop doing that immediately," said Steven Schier, a political-science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. "Anybody who thought Franken was frivolous because he's been a comedian ... is just wrong."
The announcement from the Franken campaign comes nearly a week after Coleman announced fund raising of more than $1.5 million last quarter and about $3 million for the year. Franken's leading rival for the Democratic endorsement, attorney Mike Ciresi, raised $735,000 since beginning his bid for the nomination in March.
Much early discussion of Franken's candidacy has focused on his career as a humorist, and Franken has acknowledged the challenge of persuading voters to see him in a more serious light.
But his prowess as a fund-raiser is well-established.
"I don't think Franken needed to establish credibility as a money-raiser," said Joseph Kunkel, a political scientist at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He added that Franken's numbers confirm that he has name recognition and access to political checkbooks.
Schier said Franken's results should also be seen "in the context of Democrats raising a lot of money generally. The political environment is favoring them in a way it hasn't for a good many years."
But Steven Smith, a congressional expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said Franken has passed a key test: "More than any other candidate in this race, Franken had to prove whether he could put together a fund-raising organization. This shows that he can."
The former "Saturday Night Live" star has spent almost $1.4 million so far on staff, a new 7,500-square-foot headquarters in St. Paul and fund-raising infrastructure.
Franken picked up almost 26,000 new contributors last quarter, giving him about 36,000 for the year. The campaign said it has received donations this year from each of Minnesota's 87 counties, all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In all, 82 percent of Franken's donors this year, who together have contributed more than $2.5 million, are from outside Minnesota.
More than 50 percent of Coleman's donors came from Minnesota, according to his campaign. Of Ciresi's donors, 73 percent are Minnesotans.
A release from Franken's campaign said it was "thrilled" to get money from actors Edward Norton and Meg Ryan. The campaign said it expects criticism for receiving out-of-state money despite holding "low-dollar events" in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
"He's a national figure with a national fund-raising network," Schier said. "It means he has legs, and will be able to continue pulling money since he's able to get it nationally."
Yet, Schier said, "The prevalence of outside money ... might be usable against him. One challenge Franken has is proving that he is of Minnesota."
Franken's campaign emphasized that it received only $5,500 in money from political action committees this quarter and about $20,000 for the year; Coleman took in more than $470,000 from PACs in the first quarter.
Coleman campaign director Cullen Sheehan said the criticism of his campaign's PAC money is unfair. Coleman's campaign said it expects Franken to receive more PAC money if he is chosen as the Democratic nominee.
A Franken spokesman said the candidate hasn't decided if he'll accept PAC money if chosen as the party nominee.
Ciresi's campaign said it is confident of being financially competitive.
"We're proud of the money we raised in the last two months," said communications director Leslie Sandberg. "Money will not be an issue in the Senate campaign. Leadership and the ability to get results is the issue."
(Staff writers Kevin Diaz, D.J. Tice and Patricia Lopez contributed to this report. Contact Jake Sherman at jsherman(at)startribune.com.)
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