After Al’s trip through northwest Minnesota to lay out energy policy a week or two ago, the Roseau Times-Region had a story this weekend about Al’s visit to Roseau for a breakfast meet & greet and tour of Roseau’s Polaris plant. Former Secretary of Agriculture and Congressman Bob Bergland joined Al for both stops.
Read the full entry for excerpts from the article…
Al’s been busy at the State Fair bouncing between our booth, several radio interviews live from the Fair, stops at the DFL booth, and all sorts of other booths in between (the roasted corn is a big hit  and it’s even on our special State Fair campaign buttons). It’s been a busy few days, so we’re lucky to have all of our great volunteers and interns to help out at our booth!
And since the Frankens consider the campaign a family operation, Franni and Thomasin have also been spending time at our Fair booth. In fact, Franni’s mother and sister are even here to pitch in.
Al was back at the Fair on Friday to receive the League of Conservation Voters endorsement. Gene Karpinski, national president of LCV, came out to Minnesota to roll out the endorsement so we brought him right out to the Franken for Senate State Fair Booth – where else would we have a campaign event in Minnesota during the State Fair?
Read much more (we had a really busy few days at the Fair) after the jump…
On Thursday morning, TeamFranken got an early start to the day – Al was at the State Fair before it opened, greeting the early risers who were waiting to get in as soon as the gates opened. You might have caught Al on TV greeting Princess Kay while you were watching the morning news yesterday morning, or talking about how excited he was for walleye-on-a-stick.
Later in the day, we headed over to the AARP’s 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Fair, where Al signed the AARP “Divided We Fail” pledge and talked about his plans to help Minnesota seniors, like lowering the cost of prescription drugs and creating a caregiver tax credit to help Minnesotans caring for aging family members. Al never misses a chance to meet new people, so he spent some time chatting with folks who were there to enjoy the music.
Then it was on to the Al Franken for Senate booth, where our enthusiastic volunteers are there all day to talk to passers-by about Al and the campaign, sign up supporters, pass out our State Fair trading cards (a fun collectible item that received rave reviews from folks at the Fair last year!) and sell our State Fair edition buttons. We’re even passing out recipe cards for Franni’s famous apple pie.
The booth itself is pretty cool, too – it got a major re-vamp this year so it holds more volunteers than ever, and it even lights up at night! So stop by the Fair anytime to say hello – we’re at the corner of Judson and Underwood. See you there!
We wrapped up last week with a swing up through northwestern Minnesota (all the way to Roseau, on the Canadian border!) for our “Planting the Seeds for Minnesota’s Energy Economy” Tour.
Al kicked things off with a speech in St. Cloud to the Minnesota Rural Electric Association. The St. Cloud Times covered his remarks in the article “Franken touts energy ideas for future.”
“I believe Minnesota should be powered by Minnesota energy and that Minnesota energy should mean Minnesota jobs,” Franken told the crowd at Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites.
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“But it doesn’t matter if we get to zero emissions in this country” if other nations continue to build new greenhouse gas-producing energy plants, Franken continued. “So we’d better develop coal sequestration, not just for us but for the world, and wouldn’t it be nice if we had something to sell to China for a change?”
Read more from the tour after the jump…
As part of his northwest Minnesota swing last week, Al sat down with the Bemidji Pioneer to talk about the needs of Minnesota’s American Indians on his way to a pow-wow at Red Lake Nation.
Al talked about the importance of American Indians in Minnesota, and explained why he would like to serve on the Indian Affairs Committee.
The Bemidji Pioneer and Red Lake Net News both wrote articles about Al’s visit. Read more after the jump.
Last night, Women for Franken had its biggest event yet at the home of a supporter in St. Paul. Luckily it didn’t rain, because we’d never have fit everyone inside. No one was quite sure how many people there were filling the backyard, but almost all of the 150 nametags we’d brought were gone fifteen minutes after the event began, as people were still arriving in droves….so let’s just say it was a very good crowd.
Al, Franni and Thomasin chatted with attendees as folks snacked on cookies and lemonade and met their neighbors. Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, St. Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry, Rep. Erin Murphy, Ramsey County Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt and other progressive women leaders attended the event  Speaker Kelliher co-chairs Women for Franken and introduced Al to the crowd. Al told the assembled crowd about his proposals for helping Minnesota families and making things easier for working women (more Minnesota women are in the workforce than in any other state) and promised to work for all Minnesotans, including the women of Minnesota, in Washington.
Check out our Women for Franken page for more information, or sign up to hear about future events.
Yesterday Al sat down with four Minnesotans facing deep credit card debt for a roundtable about the credit crisis. They shared several stories of predatory practices from credit card companies, including a woman who was given a credit card at her dentist’s office to pay for a procedure she could not afford and ended up with hidden fees and high interest rates that left her further in debt than she started after a year of working to pay it off. A young woman who had just graduated from college had paid for her living expenses on credit cards during her college years  despite working part-time through school, the combined balances on several credit cards with high interest rates meant that she graduated with several thousand dollars of credit card debt on top of her student loans, and could not join AmeriCorps or the Peace Corps as she’d hoped.
Al proposed major reforms to address the growing personal credit crisis, including a Credit Card Bill of Rights that would crack down on predatory lenders.
Read full entry for more, including the media coverage of the event.
A few weeks ago, a Time magazine reporter followed Al for a day on the campaign trail. From his account of his day with Al Franken:
After the Rogers parade, Franken rides an hour to the Chisago County Democratic- Farmer-Labor Party BBQ, where he asks the jazz band of elderly men to play him in. In front of 50 people, he delivers his stump speech about how kids he meets in high schools cannot remember an America that is respected in the world. Then he jogs off to serve hot dogs. Standing nearby is Jim Oberstar, a Democrat in the House since 1975, who marvels at how hard Franken has worked the state.
Al spent this past weekend campaigning with Congressman Keith Ellison around Minneapolis. Their weekend included the Urban League Family Day parade, visits to local shopping malls to talk to members of the Somali community and a news conference where Al unveiled proposals to address the housing crisis.
The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder covered the news conference, where Veronica Ezeka of North Minneapolis told her story of falling behind in mortgage payments as she struggled to balance mortgage payments with raising five kids and caring for her elderly father. After living in her North Minnepolis home for almost 15 years, her home was set for foreclosure this week.
Read excerpts after the jump…
Yesterday was a HUGE day for us on the campaign: Al debated Norm Coleman for the first time at Farmfest near Redwood Falls, and it was a great success! Al laid out his vision for revitalizing rural communities, and focused on the issues that matter to people – the economy, energy prices, health care – just like he has along the campaign trail. He also used the debate as an opportunity to hold Norm Coleman accountable for his record of backing George W. Bush and selling out middle class Minnesotans to the special interests.
Al’s message is dominating the media coverage of the debate – check out these clips from around Minnesota after the jump…
