Politico: Coleman-Franken gravy train rolls on in D.C.

By Kenneth P. Vogel, Politico

Last update: April 6, 2009 - 12:49 PM

At least one constituency was thrilled by recent reports suggesting that the seemingly endless Minnesota Senate race could drag out even longer, perhaps for years — Washington fundraisers.

The epic Senate recount battle between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken is turning out to be an incomparable gravy train, lining the pockets not just of the lawyers who are making a small fortune off the case, but also of groups ranging from the Republican Jewish Coalition to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Coleman and Franken have raised more than $12 million between them since the election, mostly to pay their mounting legal bills. But they aren't the only ones raising money off their fight — it's also viewed as a potential cash cow by noncombatants who are trying to milk it for everything it’s worth.

Democratic fundraising appeals frame the contest as an opportunity to ease congressional obstacles to President Barack Obama’s bold agenda and a chance for payback on another post-election power grab — Bush v. Gore.

To Republicans, the battle is about drawing a line in the sand after taking a brutal Election Day beating and claiming the moral high ground on voter-protection efforts — an argument typically associated with Democrats.

“When people find out what happened, they’re outraged,” said Michael Thielen, executive director of the Republican National Lawyers Association.

Thielen said he was “shocked about the response and the interest” to the e-mails and the court fight.

Democratic activists are also energized, said longtime Franken friend Paul Begala, the consultant and commentator, because their party “is awfully close to giving this president the filibuster-proof majority he needs. And I think that’s why the Republicans are fighting this beyond the bounds of reason. They have very little respect for democracy. They didn’t care that Bush got fewer votes than Gore.”

Begala, who headlined a Saturday fundraiser in Minnesota for the state party (which is helping Franken pay his legal bills), last week lent his name to a pair of appeals from the party’s House and Senate campaign committees linking Franken’s fight to that of the Democratic candidate in last Tuesday’s too-close-to-call upstate New York congressional special election.

In fact, hours after the polls closed without a clear winner Tuesday, both parties were pleading with their donors for more cash by ominously predicting the razor-thin race could become Franken-Coleman II.

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