CongressDaily published a piece today called “Congressional Campaigns Harness Web 2.0″ that highlighted our campaign’s use of our website, YouTube and other new technology.

And some Senate campaigns have adopted the “subscriber” model of soliciting online small amounts of money on a regular basis from supporters.

“We very much follow the same line of thinking as the Obama campaign, it’s just on a smaller scale,” said Franken’s technology guru, Jon-David Schlough. Schlough said the campaign’s online donations have averaged $50 to $60 dollars per individual.

Read more for other excerpts from the article…

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After kicking things off at a rally in St. Louis Park on Monday, Al traveled the state this week to present his economic proposals to help ease the burden on the middle-class and hear from Minnesotans about what they need from Washington.

At a stop in Rochester, local TV station KTTC estimated that about 100 people attended a rally where Al spoke about his proposals. In their story about the event, they also included this part of Al’s speech:

Al Franken says, “Buying a home or starting a small business; saving for a secure retirement. It’s harder to reach for your dreams when it takes both hands to hold everything together.”

From the Rochester Post-Bulletin, which also covered the event:

DFL Senate candidate Al Franken touted his plan for bringing tax relief to middle-class Minnesotans during a campaign stop in Rochester on Wednesday.

Franken, who has made middle-class tax relief a central element of his campaign for U.S. Senate, first unveiled his “kitchen table tax relief” package earlier this week. On Wednesday, Franken spelled out its key elements to a Rochester audience, including new tax credits to cover the cost of child care, expanded family leave options and a new way of saving for retirement.

Franken said that by most economic indicators — health care costs, gas prices, the number of home foreclosures — the American middle class is falling behind. He blamed President Bush and his GOP opponent, Sen. Norm Coleman, for supporting policies that have largely favored the wealthy, while leaving the middle class in an economic hole. He described his own plan as a kind of ladder that would help the middle class climb out of that hole.

Read more from other stops on the tour after the jump…

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Nearly 30,000 views have caused TV to take notice of our little web video – in a big way. WCCO and KARE11 are featuring our parody of Norm Coleman’s hockey ad. View it here if you haven’t seen it yet.

From WCCO:

A parody by Al Franken’s campaign of a Sen. Norm Coleman ad has gotten more than 21,000 hits on YouTube, but won’t be seen on TV. The original ad it parodies highlights Coleman’s political career.

The humorous send up shows a dilemma for the Franken camp: just how funny can democratic candidate Franken be?

…

And then there is the expectations game. When asked if Franken feels pressure to be funny he replied, “Only at this moment.”

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Last week, a reporter from The Nation spent a day shadowing Al and learned quite a bit about Minnesota politics and our U.S. Senate race along the way ­– everything from the inspiration of Sen. Wellstone to the amazing DFL caucus turn-out this year to our campaign’s experience in “happy problems” (such as having to move into a bigger space to fit all of our fantastic and
dedicated volunteers).

Coffer numbers only paint part of the picture. The Franken campaign has a secret weapon in the form of a massive advantage in volunteer effort and energy that first became apparent last winter. DFL leaders were shocked in February when 215,000 people showed up for the state’s presidential caucus, nearly four times the usual number, more than half of whom were first time voters. “There were people voting on post-it notes and voting on lawns because there was no room in the buildings,” says Andy Barr, Franken’s spokesperson.

Read more from the article after the jump…

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After Al announced his new common-sense solutions to ease the middle-class economic burden yesterday, the Star Tribune and MPR wrote about Al’s new proposals and the rest of our busy week here at TeamFranken (check out our new web video!)

Read excerpts from the stories after the jump…

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Last week, Randi Kaye from Anderson Cooper 360° came out to follow Al for a day. She wrote about her trip on the AC360° blog – apparently her trip home was a travel nightmare, but at least she had a good time while she was in Minnesota.

I came to Minneapolis on Tuesday so I could spend the next day shooting with Al Franken, who’s running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.

My flight was smooth as silk. My shoot with Al Franken was great. We went to a county fair, played games, he won me a stuffed animal, and of course we talked politics, and lots of it.

Make sure to watch Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN tomorrow night at 9 PM Central to watch their profile of Al. (And in case you’re wondering, it was the Rice County Fair in Faribault and Al really did win her a stuffed animal!)

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From WCCO:

There’s new information Thursday about those controversial pro-business ads supporting Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. Documents obtained by WCCO-TV show that Coleman once supported the bill that makes it easier for unions to organize in the workplace.

It’s hard to miss the pro-business ad featuring the Sopranos-like union boss who supports Al Franken. It’s an ad that’s got Democrats crying ‘foul’.

The bill — making it easier to organize unions — does not eliminate the secret ballot and Wednesday Democrats harshly denounced Coleman for saying it does.

“Don’t make any mistake. It’s not ‘all but called him a liar’. I am calling him a liar,’” said Brian Melendez of the Minnesota DFL Party at a news conference Wednesday.

Now, it turns out that Coleman once supported the idea.

As the Republican Mayor of St. Paul, Coleman signed a unanimous city council resolution asking businesses to stay out of union elections and allow unions to form by signing union cards.

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Al Franken, who is caricatured in the pro-business ad, is unconvinced.

“He simply is shameless and he will say whatever he thinks people want to hear at the time and he doesn’t believe it. He will say anything. You can’t trust the man,” said Franken.

[emphasis added]

Read the entire article.

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In a new ad, a Coleman front group attacks Al for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would help workers organize unions free from intimidation by management. The ad accuses Al of wanting to “eliminate the secret ballot.” This, of course, is an outright lie — the Employee Free Choice Act does nothing of the sort. Even local TV station WCCO’s ‘Reality Check’ called it a “distortion” and “false.”
Watch the video…

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On a parade stop in Bemidji this Sunday, Al stopped at the local Dunn Bros. coffee shop to chat with a Bemidji Pioneer reporter about energy policy and how it can address the middle-class squeeze.

From the article:

Gas prices and energy are adding to the middle-class squeeze, he said. “The middle class is really stretched to the point of breaking, and gas prices may be the thing that breaks the middle class, with stagnant wages, the cost of health care, the cost of education, and now food, the collapse of the housing market so people don’t have any equity.

“Now with $4 a gallon gas, people are really, really suffering,” he said.

Al also talked about Coleman’s vote against cloture for the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, which didn’t get the 60 votes needed to go forward.

“The bill would have done a number of things — extend the R&D (research and development) tax credit that would have incentivized buying electric hybrid cars, a production tax credit for biodiesel, would have put funding into cellulosic” ethanol, he said.

“It also extended child tax credits and tuition tax credits and actually had tax credits for teachers who bought school supplies for their kids,” Franken said. “He voted against it because it would have been paid for by eliminating a loophole for hedge fund managers who get their money from offshore.”

Read the entire article from the Bemidji Pioneer.

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On his way to the 4th of July parade in Aurora last Thursday night, Al stopped in Hibbing to support local union members who had gathered to protest Wal-Mart’s use of out-of-state non-union contractors for a multi-million-dollar remodeling project.

From the Hibbing Daily Tribune:

Franken said he recently visited a union laborers’ training center and “was amazed” at how well the workers were trained. “Anyone would be crazy not to buy a place” built with union labor, he said.

“We have to get back in this country to where we care about quality, and we care about paying people enough, so these people can buy things and have a good quality of life,” Franken said.

“We’re in a downward spiral,” he added. “We need to stop it, and start going back up, and this is the way to do it (while pointing at the protesters).”

Read the rest of the article to learn more.

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