Minnesota recount could cost millions

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Democrat Al Franken are spending millions in their ongoing battle to settle the fight over th{mosads}e last Senate seat in the upcoming Congress.

Already the most expensive Senate race of the cycle, donations to the Coleman and Franken recount efforts are pouring in just as fast as contributions during their general election battle. The committee established by Coleman’s campaign to raise money for the extended recount had raised an additional $1.83 million as of November 24, with $2.14 million cash on hand, according to reports filed yesterday with the Secretary of the Senate.

{mosads}Franken’s recount committee raised $2.1 million during the same time frame and through the 24th had $1.9 million in the bank.

Individuals can donate up to $12,300 to both efforts, a combination of limits of $10,000 to state parties in a calendar year and $2,300 to candidates. And Franken and Coleman will troll their old donor databases for new contributions as well; recounts are, in effect, treated as separate elections.

Franken’s campaign filed forms with the Federal Election Commission on November 10, while Coleman’s committee reached the FEC on Monday. Both committees operate jointly between the campaigns and their respective Minnesota parties.

Franken claims to have a 10-vote lead in the recount. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s tally, Coleman leads Franken by 316 votes, with 98 percent of votes having been recounted.

Recounts are not cheap. The last major recount, over a governor’s race in Washington state in 2004, cost state Democrats about $6 million, according to those who controlled the purse strings at the time. Still, both Franken and Coleman hope this situation doesn’t mirror that in the Evergreen State, when Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi battled in court well into the following year.

Though he declined to comment on exactly how much the party has spent so far, Minnesota GOP chair Ron Carey told The Hill the costs to the campaigns and state parties will be “several million dollars, depending on litigation.” That doesn’t count money from both parties’ national Senate campaign committees and the Republican and Democratic National Committees, all of which are pouring resources into Minnesota.

The recount will cost the state far less than it’s costing candidates. A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office said Minnesota will reimburse local elections offices for the recount at a rate of 3 cents per ballot, or a little short of $90,000 to count the more than 2.9 million ballots cast. The state doesn’t expect other significant costs.

Even when counting ends on Friday, the costs to both campaigns will continue. Franken’s and Coleman’s hopes rest with the state Canvassing Board, which will hear arguments on the thousands of ballots that have been challenged by both campaigns on December 16.

The board, made up of four judges and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, will have to deal with more than 5,000 ballots, even after both campaigns dropped challenges to a combined 1,200 ballots earlier this week. Both parties say they trust the impartiality of the board. “If we can’t trust our judges to be fair and impartial, then we’ve got a lot more trouble in our society,” Carey said.