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Six days before the Nov. 4 election, Franken urged his fellow Democrats to “take back Paul’s seat,” referring to the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., who died in a 2002 plane crash while campaigning against Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. Replacing Coleman is crucial to reverse America’s downward economic spiral, Franken told a crowd of 300-plus at Lourdes Hall.
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Democrat Al Franken, a candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to more than 150 on Wednesday at Lourdes hall in Winona. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News) |
Franken cited the recent layoff of nearly 200 workers at Winona’s TRW Automotive plant, and said the economic downturn is linked to Republican economic policies such as tax credits for companies that outsource jobs.
“Every homeowner has seen their home equity dissipate, … and 170,000 Minnesotans are now looking for jobs that they can’t find,” Franken said.
Franken’s remarks were mostly red-meat rhetoric for DFL devotees, as he battles Coleman in a race that polls say has tightened in the last month. Coleman — arguing for a need to elevate Minnesota’s political discourse — recently pulled his ads that attacked Franken and called for other candidates to follow suit. But Franken said Coleman’s decision was a purely political calculation.
“His ads were backfiring, so he took them off the air,” Franken said.
Mark Sommerhauser may be reached at (507) 453-3514 or at msommerhauser@winonadailynews.com
El Uno wrote on Oct 30, 2008 11:43 AM: