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.

More after the jump…
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On Friday, we announced “Seniors for Franken” (a new effort to organize seniors on behalf of Al) and Al unveiled a 5-point agenda to help Minnesota seniors. Al stood with Seniors for Franken co-chairs Don and Arvonne Fraser and Jim Johnson at Lyngblomsten Nursing Home in St. Paul for the kick-off, which coincided with the release of our new ad about Al’s support for Social Security.

Al’s proposals to help seniors also include allowing Medicare to negotiate drug costs, allowing the safe reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada, and giving Minnesota seniors and their families more flexibility for long-term care.

More, including coverage of the event, after the jump…

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Our Women for Franken campaign is growing in leaps and bounds, and thousands of Minnesota women have attended events everywhere from Bloomington to St. Cloud to Coon Rapids. We’ve even kicked off a new “Women Calling Women” outreach program. Almost 200 women came to an event recently in Burnsville – read more after the jump about the event and how you can get involved!

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Al Kicks off General Election at the Wellstone Center

As you may have heard on the news already, yesterday Al Franken became the DFL nominee for U.S. Senate. Thanks to everyone who voted for Al in the primary – and consider it good practice for Nov. 4!

Today, Al kicked off the general election with a speech at the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center in St. Paul. Joined by Paul and Sheila’s son David, Al spoke about the choice Minnesotans face – between Al’s commitment to stay loyal to Minnesotans and Norm Coleman’s work for the special interests.

Read Al’s speech here.

From the Pioneer Press:

At a rally at the Paul and Shelia Wellstone Center for Community Building on St. Paul’s west side, Franken summoned numerous Wellstone associations in the issues he highlighted and in choosing the late senator’s son, David Wellstone, to introduce him.

“Al’s a principled progressive who’s going to fight for the things that matter to us,” Wellstone said, adding he hoped Franken’s message would appeal to the same type of blue-collar and middle-class voters that helped propel Wellstone’s unlikely victory over a Republican incumbent in 1990.

In his speech before about 200 supporters, the former “Saturday Night Live” comedian and liberal satirist mixed economic populism and Barack Obama-like demands for change in Washington with a stinging rebuke of Coleman’s record.

“Norm Coleman’s not going to change Washington. Why would he?” Franken asked. “For Norm Coleman and his special interest friends, Bush’s Washington has worked just dandy.”

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For those of you wondering what Al’s wife Franni has been up to, not only has she been busy with Women for Franken events, but she also spent Saturday visiting DFL offices in Central and Western Minnesota.
From the Hutchinson Leader:

On Saturday, Sept. 6, Franni Franken made a personal appearance at the new McLeod County DFL office on Main Street in downtown Hutchinson. The crowd filled the small space and overflowed onto the sidewalk.

Franni was on the stump for her husband, Al Franken, who is running as the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate representing Minnesota. He is challenging incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman.

According to Paul Wright, chairman of the 7th Congressional District’s DFL Party, it’s been at least 30 years since the Democrats had an office on Main Street.

“We have more money, more people and more interest than ever before,” he said. “It’s a great time to be a Democrat.”

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Al and Congressman Tim Walz held a roundtable in Mankato on Tuesday to talk to southern Minnesotans about the economic squeeze on middle class families. They sat down with folks from Mankato and St. Peter who told them about struggling to get by in today’s economy.

Al talked about his common-sense solutions for easing the burden on Minnesota’s middle class, such as a caregiver tax credit for families taking care of elderly family members as well as children, a new family leave policy for 21st century families, and the 401(u), a new, flexible type of retirement account to help every Minnesotan develop long-term financial security.

Read an excerpt from the Mankato Free Press about the event after the jump…

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Al headed up to northeastern Minnesota for Labor Day weekend after a busy couple weeks at the State Fair. On Sunday, Al visited the Iron Range for a Day Before Labor Day Celebration in Virginia and to shake some hands with workers at the Minntac Plant in Mountain Iron.

On Labor Day, we started the day at a parade in Cloquet and then headed to Duluth where Al spoke at a news conference with Congressman Jim Oberstar to lay out a new stimulus proposal to rebuild our infrastructure and create new jobs in Minnesota.

Coverage from MPR, Northland’s NewsCenter, The Brainerd Dispatch, and The Duluth News Tribune after the jump…

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Today was our last day at the State Fair, and what a great State Fair experience we’ve had! We thought last year was great, but the response Al has gotten this year has been phenomenal. Al’s done over a dozen live radio and TV interviews from the State Fair, and Franni and Thomasin even did a joint radio interview of their own.

Mrs. Molin Look On as Mayor Coleman Introduces Al

Thursday night, Al followed a good day at the Fair with our Obama Watch Party, but it was right back to the Fair the next morning for an early morning appearance on Dave Lee in the Morning. On Friday afternoon, we had a big crowd of over 150 people waiting for Al to make his way through the State Fair to our booth (he tends to get way-laid by folks who want to say hello, ask Al a question or get a photo). St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Al’s daughter Thomasin warmed up the crowd, and even Al’s third-grade teacher Mrs. Molin was there!

And when Al arrived, our big crowd of fair-goers went wild! Mayor Coleman handed the mic over to Al, who gave a rousing speech to a crowd that grew bigger and bigger, as folks gathered around to hear Al speak about the change we need in Washington. Late on Friday afternoon when people had plenty of other interesting things to see at the Great Minnesota Get-Together, we had over 400 people surrounding our booth listening to Al’s speech!

Read more (and see the tremendous crowd around the Franken booth) after the jump…
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TeamFranken supporters, interns, staffers, volunteers and the Franken family gathered at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis to watch Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination. As the days to the election count down, we’re working hard to make sure that Al Franken will join a (larger) Democratic majority in the Senate to work with President Obama in Washington – and one of our very hard-working interns had the chance to introduce Al to the crowd for our Obama Watch Party.

Much more after the jump…

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Al Makes a Mean Guacamole

Another good day at the Fair! Al was a guest guacamole chef at Tejas Express in the Crossroads building, where the crowd built to about 200 people as Al chatted with the good folks at Tejas Express while demonstrating his guacamole-making technique.

Al is Interviewed by U of M Students

On the way over to the WCCO Radio booth, Al stopped at the U of M School of Public Health’s booth (also in the Crosssroads building) where they had a video camera set up for visitors to respond to questions about public health and their own health habits. Al talked about funding for AIDS research and food safety, and then came the hard-hitting question: when was the last time he’d washed his hands? (Al’s response: “Just 10 minutes ago, because I made guacamole for a couple hundred people, and I thought it would be a good idea.”)

Al with Don Shelby on WCCO Radio

At WCCO Radio, Al spoke live-from-the-Fair with Don Shelby about energy policy, like Al’s support of the proposal to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to lower gas prices immediately. It’s something Republican Norm Coleman opposes.

And we’re having a great time at our Franken for Senate booth – stop by when you’re at the Fair to say hello to our volunteers, check out which policy we’re highlighting on our State Fair trading cards that day, pick up Franni’s apple pie recipe and you’ll probably even run into a member of the Franken family!

See more pictures from the Fair in our Photo Gallery.
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