From The Hotline Latest Edition for Thursday, May 1,2008

MINNESOTA

Watch Your Bakk

Thu. May 1, 2008


DFL delegate Jim Johnson got a call from the Al Franken camp in the afternoon 4/29. "By early evening Johnson was working the phone himself to try to convince other Democrats the story" on Franken's unpaid taxes "was no big deal."

Johnson: "This is 'gotcha' politics. This is just talking about issues that just really don't matter to other people. ... Is it an issue that needs to be resolved? Yes. Should it have been resolved ideally a year ago, cleaned up? Yes. But this too will pass. It really will."

Franken spokesperson Andy Barr "said with the help of people like Johnson, the campaign called every convention delegate and alternate." Barr said the camp "was quick to explain the latest tax problem to groups, like unions, that have formally endorsed" Franken.

GOP chair Ron Carey "predicted there will be more discoveries of wrongdoing, and he dismissed the Franken defense that it's all an accountant's fault." Carey: "The real problem is not with the output of an accountant but with the input of the CEO of the company, Al Franken."

Carleton College prof. Steven Schier: "I think these events regarding Franken raise the possibility that a new candidate may jump into the endorsement contest or that Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer may get more support or that a number of people may go uncommitted and simply vote uncommitted in the endorsement" (Zdechlik, mpr.org, 4/30).

"The accountant isn't talking," but Dems across MN are. Franken accountant Allen Chanzis: "I have been told to say, 'No comment.' I've been told you have all the information you need."

Although most Dem activists interviewed 4/30 "said they still support Franken, some party leaders acknowledged being nervous." And state Sen. Tom Bakk (D) "said he had been approached 'by numerous people in the last 16 hours' to enter the race."Bakk "said he wouldn't rule out a U.S. Senate bid but that so far he is keeping his sights on a run for governor in 2010." Bakk: "But there is no question this is pretty serious. ... There may be a way to take the endorsement away from Franken at the convention."

A spokesperson for Rep. Tim Walz (D-01), whose name has been raised in Dem circles as a potential SEN candidate, denied he was thinking of a switch from a House reelection bid" (Lopez, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 4/30).

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DSCC spokesperson Matt Miller: "I think the Franken campaign has done a good job in handling this. He's taken responsibility, he's met every obligation and he's in a position to move forward. ... Every campaign will have bumps is the road. This one was in April and now he's in a strong position to move forward." NRSC spokesperson Rebecca Fisher: "I think what it does is that he may not have been very serious at all about running if there are this many questions out there on the management of his business" (Toeplitz, Roll Call, 5/1).

The Franken story was front-page news 4/30 in MN's 2 biggest newspapers. Franken's camp "has restricted media access to him." Schier: "He's being kept under wraps because he isn't terribly disciplined in the way he deals with reporters. He gets in their face, gets angry with them, gets aggressive with them, so he's trying to keep a distance from reporters so he doesn't mess with them"

The NRSC "created a website focusing on the tax controversy and a Web video featuring Franken making comments that he "loves corporations that play by the rules" (Kraushaar, Politico, 5/1).

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