Al Franken: Formidable fundraiser

http://www.startribune.com/587/story/681954.html

Al Franken: Formidable fundraiser
The potential 2008 U.S. Senate hopeful is helping DFLers and candidates around the country.

Rob Hotakainen, Star Tribune
WASHINGTON – A new Democratic powerhouse is emerging in Minnesota this campaign season: comedian Al Franken.

His political-action committee, which is called Midwest Values, has raised more than $800,000 that he’s spreading to Democratic candidates in Minnesota and across the country.

“He’s potentially a huge player.” said David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University in St. Paul who studies money in politics.

Schultz said that if Franken spends all of the political funds he is raising, his group would be one of the “top two or three PACs expending money in the state of Minnesota.”

But Franken, a bestselling author and radio talk-show host who grew up in St. Louis Park, could be the ultimate beneficiary if he cashes in his chits and runs for the Senate in 2008 against Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken, who moved from New York to Minneapolis this year, said he might form an exploratory committee for that race early next year.

He is raising campaign money from a variety of sources—from the entertainment industry on both coasts, his stand-up comedy shows and elsewhere.

“If I do run against Norm Coleman in ‘08, I’ll be the only New York Jew in the race who actually grew up in Minnesota,” Franken quipped to about 200 DFL activists gathered at a picnic in Fridley recently.

Hollywood ties

Contributors to Franken’s PAC include Barbra Streisand, Phil Donahue, Larry Hagman and Norman Lear from the entertainment industry, former Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson and Minneapolis attorney Sam Kaplan.

That list of contributors prompted Coleman to say that Franken “obviously has a sense of humor” by calling his PAC Midwest Values.

“Hollywood values aren’t Midwest,” Coleman said, “and the money isn’t Midwest.”

Coleman, who has raised nearly $4 million for his reelection bid, said he expects Franken to be “a very strong voice for the far left” and a strong fundraiser.

“There’s a lot of Hollywood money out there, a lot of ultra-liberal money out there,” Coleman said. “I have no doubt that Al Franken will be very, very formidable. ... He can probably self-fund.”

Franken said he chose the name Midwest Values for his group because he is tired of Republicans claiming those values as their own. He said that Hollywood contributors have provided only $60,000 to his PAC and that Minnesotans have given much more.

Franken would not be allowed to use his PAC money to finance a run for the Senate.

So far, Franken has distributed $10,000 each to Senate hopeful Amy Klobuchar and House candidates Patty Wetterling, Tim Walz and Coleen Rowley. He gave $5,000 each to Democrats in tight Senate races: Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Jon Tester in Montana. He gave $20,000 to the DFL Party and $500 each to more than 30 legislative candidates.

He is aiming his money at contested races where he believes it will help most.

Wetterling said that Franken is bringing a new perspective to politics: “This is Minnesota. We elected Jesse Ventura. We elected Rod Grams, the TV anchorman,” she said. “We’ve elected different people.”

Franken has been doing a lot of politicking around Minnesota since January, when he moved his show on the Air America radio network from Manhattan to Minneapolis.

The night after he appeared in Fridley, Franken went to Tonka Bay to raise money for Wetterling. The next night, he rallied DFLers at the Wellstone Dinner in St. Cloud. Two nights later, he was in Minneapolis, raising money for abortion-rights advocates. The next week, Franken went to Denver and San Francisco to do stand-up shows. Last Tuesday night, he attended a political event in Rochester.

Republicans take notice

Franken’s political rounds in the state are not going unnoticed by opponents.

Last week, State Republican chairman Ron Carey called him one of the “true finance chairs” behind DFL gubernatorial candidate Mike Hatch. Carey described Franken as “an angry liberal.”

Franken said he is ready for attacks. “I admit, I’ve been angry at times. ... I don’t know how you don’t get angry at what’s going on,” he said.

As he travels throughout Minnesota, Franken is staying true to his trade, often relying on humor at political events. He calls the No Child Left Behind law for schools “the most ironically named piece of legislation since the 1942 Japanese Family Leave Act.” He says Republicans are “stealing God,” adding that the Bible is filled with references to helping the poor. If you cut all those references out, he says, “you’d have the perfect box to smuggle Rush Limbaugh’s drugs in.”

At the Fridley picnic, Franken got a big laugh when he read from the GOP’s Contract With America in 1994, recalling how Republicans promised to end a cycle of political scandal.

“On September 27th, 1994, on the steps the Capitol, they said this: ‘If we break the contract, throw us out,’ ” he said.

After the crowd’s hooting ended, Franken yelled: “Sounds like a plan to me!”

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