DULUTH--U.S. Sen. Al Franken and his Republican challenger Mike McFadden faced off Wednesday morning in the first of three debates that found the incumbent defending his voting record while they clashed over topics ranging from Iron Range mining jobs and the environment to the Affordable Care Act.
After first congratulating Franken and his wife Franni on their upcoming 39th wedding anniversary, McFadden took the first swipe at Franken during the hour-long debate, repeating a key campaign refrain that the freshman Senator is a rubber stamp for President Obama by voting along with him 97 percent of the time—a statistic so frequently evoked by McFadden that Franken made light of it.
"I'm sorry, what was that number? Let me write it down or I'll forget it." Franken said to laughs from the audience.
"I believe the biggest single issue in this country is we've created a professional class of politician and it's killing us, and I believe in six years Sen. Franken has become part of that class. McFadden said.
"He's the most partisan senator in the Democratic party. He's voted 159 out of 161 votes with the Democratic Party. That makes him the most partisan Senator in Washington, that's a fact, that's not my opinion."
Franken, who was relatively subdued on stage compared to a fiery McFadden, said every vote he made was in the interest of Minnesotans.
"In an era where there's been a lot of gridlock, I've worked across party lines to find common sense solutions," he said, ticking off GOP Senators, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Pat Roberts of Kansas, with who he's co-sponsored bills.
"You can slice and dice these numbers any way you want to come up with things that say pretty ridiculous things, but I work for Minnesota and I've been proud to do that," he said, adding that a study cited by McFadden also lists Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who led last year's government shutdown, as the most bipartisan in the Senate.
"On opposite ends of the spectrum, Al Franken is the Ted Cruz of the Democratic party," McFadden retorted.