The state's largest police officers organization announced Friday that it is backing Republican Norm Coleman for a second term in the U.S. Senate.
The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association decided to endorse Coleman rather than DFL candidate Al Franken because of the senator's "long association with law enforcement" as a state prosecutor and St. Paul mayor and his support for law enforcement legislation, executive director Bill Gillespie said.
Coleman said that he has worked with the association for decades and that he looked forward to doing so for another six years in the Senate.
"There's a difference between talk and results, and ... this race is about that difference," Coleman said.
Gillespie said the 8,000-member organization is nonpartisan, and its history bears that out. In the 2006 Senate race, it endorsed DFLer Amy Klobuchar over Republican Mark Kennedy for the Senate. And in 1998 it backed DFLer Hubert Humphrey III over Coleman for governor, the only police endorsement that Coleman has lost since 1993.
DFL officials said Coleman hasn't always been on the side of the police and produced a four-page list of votes they said he has cast against expanded funding for community policing and first responders. Earlier this year, Franken received the backing of the unions representing St. Paul firefighters and fire supervisors.
KEVIN DUCHSCHERE
