COREY MITCHELL
Washington – Led by former Minnesota U.S. Sens. Norm Coleman and Rudy Boschwitz, a dozen past and present Republican senators hosted a fundraiser Wednesday for Mike McFadden, one of Sen. Al Franken's leading GOP challengers.
Held at the National Republican Senatorial Committee's Capitol Hill headquarters, the private fundraiser may be the clearest indication yet that McFadden, a former investment banker, has piqued the interest of the GOP establishment in D.C.
"Republicans are impressed with his fundraising and the fact that he is the only candidate to put together a campaign worthy of a statewide race," said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "It also doesn't hurt that McFadden is an outsider with no voting record."
But in turning to McFadden, national Republicans may be pinning their hopes on a candidate who has yet to firm up support on his home turf.
At least three other Republicans, state Sen. Julianne Ortman of Chanhassen, state Rep. Jim Abeler of Anoka and St. Louis County Commissioner Chris Dahlberg, are considered viable candidates to capture the party's nomination.
McFadden finished second to Ortman in the state straw poll last month and his GOP opponents and Democrats alike have hammered him for not participating in public debates and not fleshing out his stances on a number of issues.
Last week a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll found Franken leading both Ortman and Dahlberg by 8 percentage points. The survey showed McFadden trailing Franken by 10 percentage points.
But with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, the SurveyUSA poll does not indicate that any candidate is " 'doing better' against" Franken in a head-to-head comparison, Duffy said.