Franken Hopes For Easier Senate Path Against McFadden
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Democratic Sen. Al Franken hoped to win a second term in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday more comfortably than his first.
Franken's victory by a mere 312 votes in a 2008 recount made him an alluring target for Republicans, who hoped to seize control of the Senate. But political newcomer Mike McFadden, despite an energetic campaign that traversed Minnesota several times, trailed in polls throughout the final weeks of the campaign.
With more promising prospects to help retake the Senate majority elsewhere, national Republican-aligned groups spent millions in states like North Carolina and Alaska, skipping Minnesota. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's early promise of "aggressive spending" for McFadden went unfulfilled.
McFadden, 50, took a leave of absence from his investment banking firm, Lazard Middle Market, to challenge Franken. He emerged from a brutally long Republican convention with a surprise endorsement, and cruised through an August primary.
McFadden attacked Franken as being too partisan and too closely tied to President Barack Obama, frequently citing a study that found Franken voted with the president 97 percent of the time. McFadden also used his own career in business to bolster an image of a "problem solver" who could sort out Congress.
"The decision is simple here," McFadden said to close out the third and final debate Sunday. "If you believe that the hyper-partisan Congress in Washington is doing a good job, then vote for Al Franken."
Kevin Arendt, a 41-year-old attorney from St. Paul, didn't buy McFadden's pitch — and not just because he's a loyal Democratic voter.
"The idea that Mike McFadden or any other person is going to come in and be able to fix the dysfunction in Congress? I think it's laughable," Arendt said, adding he didn't believe Franken could do it either.
Franken, 63, took the same low-key approach to his campaign as he has his five years in the Senate, highlighting his work on policy issues like the passage of a five-year farm bill and the need to attack runaway college debt. He also continually played up his work across the aisle, name-dropping Republican senators.
"I seek common ground when I can," Franken said during the second of three debates with McFadden. "But I also stand my ground when they come after the middle class."
Franken's emphasis on student loan debt resonated with University of Minnesota senior Annie Crepeau and her friends, she said. Franken's campaign barraged college students with ads on Internet radio sites, playing up his bill to allow students to refinance their loan debt.
"I heard it about a thousand, million times," she said. "It was all over Facebook too. That helped."
But the same issue rubbed Wally Wegleitner, 62, a retired truck driver in Maplewood, the wrong way. He voted for McFadden.
"He's pushing for the student loan, reorganizing that," Wegleitner said of Franken. "That's great, but who the heck is going to pay for that?"
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