Minnesota officials told former Not Ready for Prime Time Player Al Franken yesterday that he’s good enough, smart enough – and, gosh darn it, enough people liked him to send him to Washington as a senator.
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The former “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer, best known for his goofy Stuart Smalley character, was certified by the state Canvassing Board as the winner of the Minnesota Senate race recount.
“After 62 days of careful and painstaking hand inspection of nearly 3 million ballots, after hours of hard work by election officials and volunteers around the state, I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota,” Democrat Franken said outside his Minneapolis condominium.
But Republican incumbent Norm Coleman’s lawyer said the tally was “invalid and unreliable,” and vowed to challenge it – so Senate Democrats likely won’t seat Franken when Congress convenes today.
Coleman lawyer Tony Trimble said he’d file his challenge within 24 hours – which was expected to keep Franken from getting an election certificate that’s required for him to be seated.
Franken was up by 225 votes when the recount was finished.
On Election Day, Coleman led by more than 200 votes in an unofficial tally, which automatically led to the seven-week recount.
When officials opened nearly 1,000 absentee ballots that were improperly discounted on Election Day, Franken, a former radio host for liberal Air America, fared better than his rival.
But Coleman’s team has countered that some ballots weren’t handled right and that others were left out, giving Franken the edge.
Coleman’s recount battle suffered two major blows yesterday: The board declared Franken the winner, and the state Supreme Court rejected a petition to include several hundred rejected ballots in the recount.
Coleman’s term expired Saturday, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the new head of the Senate Rules Committee, unofficially announced Franken as the winner the next day – prompting cries of foul from GOP leaders.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tried to turn up the heat on Coleman to throw in the towel. “Al Franken has won the election . . . Everything is over with,” Reid told reporters.
Reid has indicated that he will make a move to have Franken seated in the Senate this week.
That effort would be mostly symbolic, because Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) can stop it simply by objecting.