Editorial: Bring on recount in U.S. Senate race

Last update: November 5, 2008 - 5:34 PM

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Republican Norm Coleman says he won reelection to the U.S. Senate in Tuesday’s election, and he may be right. But the 475-vote advantage he has over DFLer Al Franken in the unofficial vote tally cries out for a recount. State law provides for one automatically when elections produce winning margins of less than 0.5 percent. Coleman’s call for Franken to waive the recount should go unheeded. Let the recount proceed.

Candidates’ claims of victory or concessions of defeat don’t decide elections. Certified vote totals do. After an election vigorously fought to a virtual tie, the nearly 2.9 million Minnesotans who cast ballots Tuesday deserve the assurance of accuracy that a careful do-over would provide. If, as Coleman forecasts, the recount does not change the outcome, the exercise still will have served the good purpose of shoring up confidence in Minnesota’s election administration.

Coleman was on surer ground Wednesday morning when he described the message he thinks Minnesota voters intended to send to their political leaders. It was, he said, “Democrats and Republicans, we expect you to work together to get things done.” He grounded his reelection campaign on his ability to meet that expectation, as demonstrated especially in the latter years of his first term. The message rang true enough to allow him to buck a strong Obama-Democratic tide in Minnesota.

Again Wednesday, Coleman vowed that bipartisanship would be a hallmark of his Senate service. “Our first priority has to be to heal the partisan divide that has blocked our path to solutions on job creation, energy independence, health care, stabilizing this economy” and more, he said.

Those were reassuring words after an election whose results will likely make it harder for Coleman to walk a bipartisan path. He will return to a depleted Senate Republican minority caucus, in which smaller numbers alone will ratchet up pressure on the few remaining moderates, Coleman among them, to close ranks with their more conservative colleagues.

Coleman would also return to the Senate as the subject of uncomfortable scrutiny. Questions remain about allegations in a Texas lawsuit filed on Oct. 27 that improper payments were made to Coleman’s wife by a business owned by his friend and campaign donor Nasser Kazeminy. Though Coleman has denied receiving any money improperly, the matter likely has not been laid to rest. It should be, soon. Major decisions await the next Senate. Minnesotans deserve a senator who can address the nation’s business full time — without the distraction of an ethics investigation.

The uncertain finish to this year’s Senate race might be seen as a fitting conclusion to the unbecoming slugfest that the Coleman-Franken rivalry became. The constant belittling that each big-party candidate endured at the hands of the other and his allies created an opening for the Independence Party’s Dean Barkley, and left too many voters unenthusiastic about any of the candidates.

The final winner in this one might not be known for weeks. But among the losers, we can already count Minnesota’s tradition of political civility. Whichever candidate wins, he has some repair work to do.

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