Minnesota Senate Race May Be Certified Today

As far as state election officials are concerned, all the votes have been counted in the Minnesota Senate race and Al Franken won by 225 votes. However, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to count additional votes (in Coleman-friendly territory). The court has not yet ruled on Coleman's request. It should be remembered that two of the seven members of the court are on the canvassing board, including chief justice Eric Magnuson. It seems unlikely that Magnuson (the justice) will tell Magnuson (the canvasser) that he screwed up. However, it is possible that he and associate justice G. Barry Anderson will recuse themselves from voting on the case. Coleman has said that if his request is denied he will file another lawsuit, probably alleging that votes in some (Franken-friendly) precincts were counted twice. With the Senate set to reconvene tomorrow, the court may act today. It is not unheard of to have courts act within a day, for example, hearing last minute appeals from prisoners scheduled to be executed that day.

Kaine to Succeed Dean at the DNC

Yesterday we had a story about the six-way fight for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. The party that occupies the White House has a much easier job: the President just says who he would like and the national committee members all stand up and salute. President-elect Obama has now said that he wants Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA) to be chairman of the DNC and that will surely happen now. Kaine is currently serving his fourth and final year as governor of Virginia and is forbidden by law from succeeding himself. Ironically, the highest profile Democrat trying to become the governor of Virginia is Terry McAuliffe, who was formerly chairman of the DNC. It has happened before that a (former) governor has become chairman of the DNC: the current chairman, Howard Dean, was governor of Vermont for almost six terms before taking over the DNC.

Richardson Withdraws from Secretary of Commerce Nomination

Secretary-designate Bill Richardson has withdrawn his name as the new Secretary of Commerce. He is being investigated for possible favoritism in granting state contracts to political donors and didn't want the economic stimulus to be held up by a long drawn-out confirmation hearing.

Democrats Not Budging on Refusal to Seat Burris

The top two Democrats in the Senate, majority leader, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and majority whip, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), both stated yesterday that they don't intend to seat Roland Burris, who the scandal-plagued governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich (D), has appointed to Obama's empty seat. However Reid added that he is a former lawyer so there is always room to negotiate. What they would negotiate is not clear and there isn't much time since the Senate reconvenes tomorrow.

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