Seat unfilled, Sen. Coleman goes to court

Norm Coleman (R) extended the Minnesota Senate race for weeks and perhaps months on Tuesday, filing a lawsuit to challenge his loss to Democrat Al Franken.

The Republican also beat back calls from some, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), to concede the race.

{mosads}“This race will be decided by Minnesota voters, not by Harry Reid,” Coleman (R) said defiantly to the cheers of supporters in St. Paul, where he served two terms as mayor.

On Monday, Franken (D) was declared the winner of Minnesota’s Senate race by a recount panel, which handed him a 225-vote win out of nearly 3 million ballots cast. The former Saturday Night Live star would succeed Coleman, who has served one term in the seat.

Coleman’s lawyers said they were filing suit even as Coleman spoke Tuesday afternoon.

“Something greater than expediency is at stake here,” Coleman said, adding: “We will not permit the full process to be short-cut. That would only cast greater doubt and uncertainty over the final result.”

In Minnesota, losing candidates have seven days to file after an election contest, and by challenging the outcome, Coleman delays the certification of Franken’s win.

Franken’s win won’t be certified until the case is resolved, which could take months.

Franken has labeled himself a “senator,” and his attorney, Marc Elias, called the lawsuit a Sisyphean task in which “the Coleman campaign takes a very heavy rock and tries to push it up a very steep hill.”

“It is essentially the same thin gruel, warmed-over leftovers, that we’ve all been served over the last few weeks,” Elias said, discounting Coleman’s arguments. “When you lose by 225 votes, you have to go mining for votes somewhere.”

While the margin is razor-thin, Coleman faces an uphill battle in getting it overturned in the courts.

The suit will head to a three-judge panel, appointed by Minnesota’s chief justice, with the trial set to begin within three weeks. Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said the campaign has already begun the discovery process, which will involve statements and depositions of local election officials across the state.

Though he voiced optimism at the campaign’s prospects in state court, Knaak did not rule out eventually taking the case to federal court.

“I would not be surprised if this went a month and a half or two months out,” Knaak said. “Let’s be realistic, maybe two months out — hopefully sooner.” Later, Knaak told a reporter the two-month estimate was “very optimistic.”

Coleman’s lawyers are disputing about 650 absentee ballots they say were improperly rejected, about 150 ballots they say were counted twice and 133 votes they say were counted without ballots to back them up.

They also have said ballots that were challenged by the campaigns were not handled by the state canvassing board in a uniform manner.

{mospagebreak}Even if those ballots are back in play, though, it doesn’t mean Coleman will win a second term. In fact, Democrats and some experts have cast doubt on whether Coleman has a chance to overturn the result at all.

Without certification, though, Reid balked at forcing through Franken’s seating on Tuesday, opting to wait and see what Coleman would do.

{mosads}Reid and the Democrats continued to apply pressure, though, seeking to end the situation without a court challenge. Reid called on his Senate colleague to concede.

In his inaugural address to the 111th Congress before Coleman’s press conference, Reid referred to the Minnesota Senate seat as a Democratic seat and repeatedly called Coleman a “former senator.”

“This is a difficult time for former Sen. Coleman and his family, and he is entitled to the opportunity to concede this election graciously, but we cannot let this drag on forever,” Reid said. “I hope that former Sen. Coleman and all of our Republican colleagues will choose to respect the will of the people of Minnesota.”

Franken’s term “must begin, and will begin, soon,” Reid added.

Reid’s call came the same day that former Republican Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson suggested Coleman should drop the challenge and that he wouldn’t win anyway. Carlson is a former Coleman backer who now considers himself an independent.

Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said the calls are premature.

“If Sen. Reid and Al Franken truly believe they are in a position to win this election, then they should have no objection to a fair, legal and nonpartisan review of the ballots,” Cornyn (R-Texas) said.

Regardless of the outcome, Coleman figures to have a potential future in elective politics.

After two successful terms as St. Paul mayor, he lost a three-way gubernatorial race to former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura (I) in 1998 and then defeated former Vice President Walter Mondale (D) to win his Senate seat in 2002. Mondale was a late replacement for Sen. Paul Wellstone (D), who died in a plane crash.

Before his loss, Coleman was thought to be a potential future chairman at the NRSC or even the Republican National Committee.

He is 59 years old.