MN US Senate: Coleman & Franken Tied in New Poll
A new SurveyUSA poll of 650 registered voters in Minnesota conducted February 10-11 finds 1-term Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman in a dead heat with DFL candidate Al Franken. Coleman, who has remained fairly popular with Minnesotans despite a statewide turn to the left in recent years, has a statistically insignificant 47 to 46 percent lead over Franken, with 8 percent undecided.
Neither candidate has polled over 50 percent in the last 4 SurveyUSA polls conducted since July 2007. Franken’s 46 percent is the high water mark of support he has received thus far. The writer and former television and radio personality has begun running a significant amount of television ads during the past weeks in the Gopher State.
According to the poll, Coleman expanded his lead over Mike Ciresi, 51 to 40 percent. Coleman had led Ciresi by 6 points in a November 2007 SurveyUSA poll and were tied at 44 percent each back in October 2007. Coleman also leads two lesser-known DFL candidates by substantial margins: 58 to 30 percent over Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and 58 to 29 percent over Darryl Stanton.
When I think of a debate, the match-up that I dream of is Coleman vs. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. Jack is so amazingly articulate and well-informed on the issues, that I really think he would leave Coleman in the dust.
Another plus: Jack is so squeeky-clean and such a nice guy, that Coleman could only attack him on the issues. Can you imagine Coleman winning on the issues?