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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
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Packed house greets Franken
Associate Editor A overflow crowd of Democrats heard U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken ask for their help to "send Norm Coleman packing" in the final week of the campaign Monday at the Last Turn Saloon in Brainerd.
The campaign stop, which filled the seats and aisles of the bar with a crowd a bartender estimated at 130, was the sixth stop in a seven-city swing Monday that included St. Cloud, Morris, Crookston, Climax, Moorhead and Bemidji.
He urged the crowd to participate in a get-out-the-vote campaign that is designed to make 1.5 million phone calls and knock on 2.8 million doors before Election Day.
"We are going to have to stand up and fight for the next eight days," Franken said. "This is going to be a close election. I need your help.
The former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer urged volunteers to make phone calls and drop literature.
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Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken greeted his supporters Monday night at the Last Turn Saloon in Brainerd. Franken was on a seven-city tour to energize his backers. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls
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"Get a Franken bumper sticker for your car and for the next eight days do not cut anyone off," he said. "After that you can do what you want.
"This is the year we take our country back," Franken said.
Franken said he'd work to cut taxes for the middle class, provide health care for the uninsured, lower Minnesota's highest unemployment rate in 22 years and provide tax grants for students attending college. He also pledged to "protect Social Security and not let them gamble it in the stock market."
He pledged to take back the seat of Sen. Paul Wellstone. D-Minn., who died in a plane crash six years ago last week while campaigning.
"The future belongs to those who are passionate and work hard," Franken said, attributing the quote to the late senator.
In comments with reporters, Franken described the financial meltdown as the exclamation point of President George W. Bush's economic policies. Those polices, he said, squeezed the middle class and drove down the median income.
Before Franken's arrival two DFL legislative candidates, Rep. John Ward, DFL-Brainerd, and Meg Bye of Pequot Lakes, warmed up the crowd.
Bye, a former Duluth City Council member, said she was going to door-knock and work hard until about 6 p.m. election night and then change clothes and "get all gorgeous" in anticipation of a victory.
"We're going to show (Gov. Tim) Pawlenty he doesn't get to be a dictator anymore," she said.
Ward, a first-term representative and retired teacher, said Franken was a person who was similar to Wellstone in his passion and consideration for people. He recalled receiving a phone call from Franken during a busy period of the campaign when the Senate candidate learned that Ward's daughter was in the hospital.
"He (Wellstone) was a short guy like me but he had a heart as big as this stinking room."
He told the crowd that change was seven days away.
"Let's get busy and finish and close this deal," Ward said.
Franken's tour was dubbed the "For the Middle Class, For a Change" tour. Tuesday's schedule called for him to campaign in Rochester and St. Paul and on Wednesday he was scheduled to visit community colleges in the Twin Cities before a night rally at Winona State University.
MIKE O'ROURKE may be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.
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