Despite declining popularity, Coleman comfortable in Senate re-election bid

[HardRCafé]

A new Minnesota Public Radio poll shows Republican Sen. Norm Coleman would handily defeat DFLers Mike Ciresi or Al Franken if the election were held today. That may sound like good news for Coleman, but the election is a year and a half away and the poll also shows some troubling signs for the incumbent.

[snip]

Matched up again Franken, Coleman would win 54 to 32 percent. Against Ciresi, he would win 52 to 29 percent.

[TheresNoMoney]

Norm is moving to the center as rapidly as possible. We'll see if it allows him to save his seat in 2008.

[Galactic Overlord]

Are the Democrats searching for other possible candidates? What about Hubert Humphrey's kid?

[TheresNoMoney]

Maybe RT Ryback.

I hope people don't get caught up too much in these early polls. Conrad Burns and George Allen had similar leads during the last election cycle (in much more conservative states).

Coleman is vulnerable.

[Tender Branson]

Internal look of this Mason-Dixon poll:

Favorable - Unfavorable - Neutral - Don´t recognize

Norm Coleman - 43% - 25% - 29% - 3%
Al Franken - 29% - 32% - 18% - 21%
Mike Ciresi - 18% - 13% - 34% - 35%

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2007/05/14_newsroom_senpolldata/index.shtml

Al Franken seems to be a Minnesota Hillary ...

[Adlai Stevenson]

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1181159.html   

Will Coleman's opponents be able to brand him as a lapdog of an unpopular president and a symbol of the unpopular Republican Party line, or will Coleman succeed in portraying himself as an independent-minded, common sense centrist?

That will be the crux of the Senate race. It should be rather easy to portray Coleman as a "political chameleon." In his first two years in the Senate, Coleman's party unity scores were in the low-90's. Then he realized how far to the right he was of mainstream Minnesota and dove back to the left, bringing his party unity score down to the high-70's in '05-06. His agreement with Bush has stood between the mid-80's and high-90's throughout his term. The article makes the following summation: "From 2003 to 2006, Coleman has moved further from the right to the center than all other senators but two." Political chameleon.

Meanwhile, MN Publius highlights that Mike Ciresi has started a YouTube channel. Creative use of multimedia.

[Sam Spade]

Just FYI, Franken is about the surest thing to being a sure loser if he wins the nomination.  I don't much about Ciresi, but trial lawyers who throw money at the electorate typically don't do well in general elections.

Much like Oregon, the crowd for the Democratic nomination for this Senate seat is presently too weak to really have a realistic shot at winning.  Let's see if someone stronger enters the contest.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Just FYI, Franken is about the surest thing to being a sure loser if he wins the nomination.  I don't much about Ciresi, but trial lawyers who throw money at the electorate typically don't do well in general elections.

Much like Oregon, the crowd for the Democratic nomination for this Senate seat is presently too weak to really have a realistic shot at winning.  Let's see if someone stronger enters the contest.

Franken will either be an extremely weak candidate or a very skilled and good one: he's never run for office before, so we'll have no idea what to expect. Remember though: Minnesota elected a professional wrestler as governor.

[Galactic Overlord]

I hope people don't get caught up too much in these early polls. Conrad Burns and George Allen had similar leads during the last election cycle (in much more conservative states).

Burns had Jack Abramoff money trails leading back to him, and Allen's loss can be summed up in one word: "Macca." Coleman won't shoot himself in the foot so easily.

[agcatter]

Al Frankrn in the Senate is a wingnut's wet dream.  Aint happening.  Cokeman won't get that lucky however.  He'll have a serious opponent unless the Democratic Party is even more whacked out than I thought.

[opebo]

I hope people don't get caught up too much in these early polls. Conrad Burns and George Allen had similar leads during the last election cycle (in much more conservative states).

Burns had Jack Abramoff money trails leading back to him, and Allen's loss can be summed up in one word: "Macca." Coleman won't shoot himself in the foot so easily.

Agreed, Coleman is a much more competent and intelligent person than either Burns or Allen, but those races were in Montana and Virginia and still went Democrat!  This is Minnesota for gosh sakes - Coleman's election in the first place was an odditty.

[agcatter]

.....which is why I'd love to see the Dems nomonate Franken.  Doubt if that will happen.  What a geft that would be to Norm.  Still, Dems might can't help themselves.  I can hope.....

[Eraserhead]

Clearly nominating Franken for the U.S. Senate in a barely blue state would not be a good idea. At least Ciresi has plenty of room to grow over time.

[Conan]

Haha. If Franken wins the democratic nomination for Senate, he will win the General election against Coleman. Period.