Al Franken Senate Fundraising, Huffington Post

GIMME MORE $$$!

Short Of Funds, Franken Begs, Demands Federal Help







When all else fails, Al Franken can always count on pal Arianna Huffington to come to his rescue, it appears. But should the government also be expected to help?

With fundraising falling short of incumbent Senator Norm Coleman's (R-MN) totals, Franken is out of inner- city charities and money- losing radio networks to strip clean. And from that unpleasant scenario comes today's urgent Huffington Post plea: send money now!

But what is the monetary value of such a direct in- kind contribution from a website operator to a US Senate candidate? Should it be declared in his FEC paperwork?

(That's quite different, by the way, from a talk host declaring support for a ballot initiative on the air.)

And will his opponents, including several running against him in the DFL (Minnesota Democrat) primary, get the same opportunity? Don't hold your breath.


If that was the extent of the issue, we might not spend time covering it here, but Stuart certainly didn't stop there. Because he's having so much trouble raising money, he now wants public financing of campaigns! Starting with his, of course.

He wants you to stuff his coffers, the same way taxpayer money meant for the Boys & Girls Club wound up covering Air America Radio's payroll expenses:

While I'm sitting there with Kris, I often think about how badly we need public financing of elections in this country. We need it because I should be out talking to Minnesotans about the issues that matter to their families. We need it so that I can spend my days meeting with policy experts and reading up on legislation and working with progressives all over the state to build a movement that can take on Norm Coleman next fall.

And we need it because members of Congress are too beholden to special interests, and that costs taxpayers, big time. The Medicare Part D prescription drug bill, which might be the most corrupt piece of legislation in history, was a huge giveaway of taxpayer funds to the big pharmaceutical companies. The 2005 energy bill handed billions of dollars of our money to big oil companies, essentially just for the hell of it.

Did the Republican majority pass those bills out of the goodness of their hearts? Of course not. They passed them because they rely on huge PAC checks from these big corporate interests to fund television commercials calling Democrats "big spenders."

Let me select a totally random example: Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman (R-PHARMA). In the first fundraising quarter this year, he raised around $1.5 million. About a third of that came from PACs -- tobacco, coal, insurance, etc. Over the course of his career, he's taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from Big Oil and Big Pharma. And, of course, he voted in favor of that horrible drug bill and that horrible energy bill.

I'm doing things a little differently. In my first fundraising quarter (which was really only 45 days since I announced on February 14), I raised around $1.35 million. But instead of relying on PACs, I relied mostly on small contributions from over 10,000 donors (over 90 percent of whom gave less than $100), more than twice as many as Coleman. (I should point out that you can help, too, by clicking here. See, I'm learning!)

Particularly pathetic is Franken's griping about the amount of time he must spend each day on fundraising. What did he think he'd be doing, relaxing on the beach?

Here's a funny comment from "robhunt", a HuffPo poster:

Why should you be able to use MY money to get yourself elected? Why don't you spend some of the money you got for telling everybody that Rush is fat? Why don't you spend some of the Gloria Wise money you've got kicking around?

You've had a national platform from which to stump for three years. If you're having trouble raising money now, it's because people don't like your ideas (or your person.) One of those ideas people don't like is your desire to use taxpayers money for your personal ends.

June 04, 2007 at 03:26am AM EDT

The truth is that after his lazy days at Air America, where he billed the company for lunch tabs and collected a fat salary, Franken is finally forced to put real effort into something and doesn't like it. Even the books were mostly written by Team Franken, made up of young Harvard grads.

If he can't handle the fundraising calls, how will he fare during ultra- boring Senate proceedings? Be careful what you wish for, Al, you just might get it.

Stuart For Senate: David A Lunde, Frankengolf guy: Pete at IHillary


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