The Minnesota election year became official last week when Richard "Dick" Franson strolled through the Capitol basement, distributing his trademark yellow campaign literature and making politically incorrect comments to female journalists.
It's campaign No. 26, the former Minneapolis City Council member cheerfully announced. This time, he's going for U.S. Senate in the DFL primary against Sen. Amy Klobuchar, rated one of the Senate's most politically secure incumbents this year.
Long shot again, eh, Dick? "Oh, no," the 83-year-old Franson chirped. "If all the veterans and the pro-lifers vote for me, I'll win!"
That comment neatly sums up Franson's platform. A former appraiser for the Veterans' Administration, he's pro-veteran and anti-abortion. But unlike some perennial candidates, issues don't seem to propel him. He appears to have started out as a conventional DFL politician in the 1960s. But in 1965, a DFLer-cum-Republican upstart named Arne Carlson knocked Franson out of a Minneapolis City Council seat after one term. That footnote in the storied career of a future Minnesota governor may be Franson's claim to fame.
A desire for revenge likely motivated his next run or two. Since then, running for office has become Franson's habit, or hobby, or both. He's not going for a record number of runs -- he passed that long ago, he says. He has sought at least six different offices; this will be his seventh bid for the U.S. Senate. He's way ahead of whomever is next on Minnesota's list, he said.
That's likely Ole Savior, another perennial I expect to see here soon -- maybe wearing his Elvis costume.
