Al, Franni and Thomasin had a busy weekend traveling in all different directions!

Al spent Saturday in the Twin Cities, stopping by Mass Appeal Barbershop in Minneapolis to greet folks and shake hands, and then heading to St. Paul to visit the Hmong International Market and the Selby Avenue Jazz Fest for more meeting and greeting.

On Sunday morning, you might have seen Al on TV, talking to Esme Murphy on WCCO about the his college tuition tax credit proposal and the state of the Senate race. Afterwards we stopped by the Mexican Independence Day Parade in Minneapolis, before it was back in the hybrid for a trip up to Duluth for the MN AFL-CIO Convention.

From Workday Minnesota:

“If you’re ready for a change, I need you to stand with me,” Franken, the DFL-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate, told the delegates. Franken hopes to defeat Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, who was elected in 2002 to fill the seat held by the late Paul Wellstone.

Franken talked about meeting a retired Iron Range Steelworker who was struggling to make ends meet after his pension was slashed by a large corporation. The Steelworker said he didn’t feel that elected officials like Coleman were aware of his plight.

“The biggest difference between me and Norm Coleman is in who we think a senator is supposed to work for,” Franken said. “I think I’m supposed to work for that retired Steelworker in Eveleth. I think I’m supposed to work for the middle-class mom who is worried sick because her daughter is in a
class with too many kids and they don’t have the financial means to send her to college. I think that I’m supposed to be fighting for the hundreds of thousands of homeowners in this state who’ve seen the equity in their homes fall apart.

“Norm Coleman thinks being a senator is a game” and “accepts hundreds of thousands in checks from corporate special interests.

“Then he comes back to Minnesota and pretends it never happened.”

…

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a DFLer, urged union members to work hard to elect Franken and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

“This is a grass roots movement, not just to win the election but also to get something done in Washington,” she said. With a Democratic president and Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, progress can be made in many areas, including renewable energy, job creation, infrastructure and benefits for military veterans, she said.

Meanwhile, Thomasin headed south for Turkey Days in Worthington, where TeamFranken started out with a pancake breakfast at the fire station before joining the Tim Walz float for the King Turkey Days Parade. She also visited Mankato for the South Central MN Pride Festival.

Franni went to a DFL Seniors Forum in Minneapolis with Rep. Keith Ellison, and then the Fulton Neighborhood Festival at Pershing Park. She also headed out to Princeton for a pig roast with Central Minnesota DFLers and union families.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 14:33 and is filed under Blog, From the Trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.