Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who was at the center of his own drawn out legal battle over a Senate seat in 2008, thinks Republican Joe Miller should hang it up and officially concede to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
In an interview that will air on C-SPAN Sunday, Coleman said, "I think that race is over."
The former senator said he understands Miller's frustration, noting that he had some of the same concerns over the standard by which elections officials in Minnesota were counting ballots in 2008. But he called his contest with Al Franken "a much, much closer race."
"I made a decision at a certain point in time to not go any further. I think at a certain point in time you have to have some finality to these things," Coleman said. "Without criticizing Joe Miller, I would offer him advice, the same advice that Fred Thompson and others have offered recently. I think it should be time to move on, that there's not much you can gain by extending the process."
Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) was more blunt on his radio show last week, saying Miller should "give it up" and "show a little class."
Murkowski was declared the winner last week, but a federal judge has issued a temporary injunction barring state elections officials from certifying the election results while Miller's lawsuit works is in state court.
Miller claims the state applied a faulty and arbitrary "voter intent" standard to the counting of write-in ballots and wants more than 8,000 ballots challenged by his campaign thrown out due to improper spelling of Murkowski's name or other irregularities.
Either way, the math isn't in Miller's favor. Murkowski leads by more than 10,000 votes, which is greater than the number of ballots challenged by Miller's camp.
The chairman of the Senate Democrats' campaign committee called a controversial ad run by Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway a "killer" for his failed campaign.
Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, criticized the ad and said his biggest mistake during the midterm election season was not asking for briefings on individual campaigns' television ads. In an interview with NorthJersey.com, he identified Conway's famous "Aqua Buddha" ad against eventual GOP winner Rand Paul.
"The allegations about Rand Paul's previous religious beliefs, I think, was a killer," Menendez said. "While we were dealing with economic issues, we were in the hunt."
Following Paul's win in the GOP primary over establishment pick Trey Grayson, Democrats had viewed the Kentucky seat, which had been vacated by retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R), as a potential pickup opportunity in a year that otherwise put the party on the defensive against the GOP.
But Paul eventually defeated Conway, the state attorney general, by almost 11 percentage points.
Conway's spot scrutinized Paul's membership in a group in college that
reportedly kidnapped a woman and forced her to pray to a god named "Aqua Buddha" and questioned his belief
in Christianity. Some Democrats criticized the spot as too harsh following its release.
Despite the Kentucky loss, Menendez has been widely praised by Democrats because the party kept its majority in the Senate despite losing six seats to Republicans.
"He made a lasting impression on the Democratic caucus," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. "I find him to be a confidant. He is somebody I trust, not only his integrity but his judgment."
Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who won his seat thanks to support from the Tea Party, is writing a book about the grassroots movement.
The book will be called "The Tea Party Goes to Washington" and focus on the Tea Party's plan for stopping spending, balancing the budget and reducing the size of the government, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
It will be published by Center Street, a division of Hachette Book Group. Other divisions of Hachette have published books by Paul's father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
The book is scheduled for release in February 2011.
Democratic activist David Brock is set to officially launch American Bridge, a political action committee intended to directly combat conservative groups, which dumped millions into the 2010 elections.
Brock toldThe New York Times that he has already won commitments from donors totaling at least $4 million in just the last few weeks and will officially file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.
Heading the group as chairwoman will be Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and the former lieutenant governor of Maryland. Townsend ran an unsuccessful campaign for Maryland governor in 2002.
The goal of American Bridge is to act as a counterweight to groups like American Crossroads, offshoot group Crossroads GPS and the American Action Network — conservative groups that raised and spent millions on TV ads targeting Democrats in 2010.
Brock, who heads the liberal group Media Matters, already has a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group at his disposal. He told the Times he also intends to utilize that existing structure in his 2012 efforts.
More from the NYT:
Certain to set off debate, however, is that Mr. Brock appears to be positioning his new organization so that fund-raising consultants can raise money for Democratic-oriented media efforts not just through American Bridge but also via one of the nonprofit organizations Mr. Brock currently runs, Media Matters Action Network, which does not disclose its donors.
The action network, which tracks conservative politicians and advocacy organizations, is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group and is set to take on an expanded role in the 2012 elections, including potentially running television ads, according to an internal draft concept paper about American Bridge’s and Media Matter Action Network’s plans obtained by The New York Times.
Mr. Brock said that “money is money,” and that he would actively solicit donors for both entities and, in the end, the media spending would be apportioned accordingly.
Brock attempted to lead a similar effort in 2008, but then-Sen. Obama publicly and privately asked Democratic donors not to fund the outside efforts. With a cycle of success under their belt and conservative groups already gearing up to target the president, the White House has indicated it won't object in 2012.
Tea Party-backed Republican Joe Miller brought his legal battle over the legitimacy of write-in ballots in Alaska's Senate race to state court Monday, asking a judge to throw out ballots he maintains are improperly marked for Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
Late last week, a federal judge told Miller his lawsuit belonged in state court and said as long as Miller filed there by Monday, he would grant Miller's request to stop certification of the election results.
That gives Miller at least a temporary victory as the state is now barred from certifying Murkowski the victor while Miller's case makes its way through the courts.
Murkowski was declared the winner last week and she claimed a "miracle" victory last Wednesday in Anchorage. The incumbent waged a write-in campaign for the seat after Miller defeated her in the Republican primary.
After state elections officials finished tallying all of the write-in ballots in the contest, Murkowski led by more than 10,000 votes. That's greater than the number of ballots the Miller campaign has challenged, leaving him with no clear mathematical path to victory even if a judge were to throw out all of the ballots in question.
In addition to his previous claim that state elections officials applied a faulty and arbitrary "voter intent" standard to the counting of write-in ballots, Miller also argued in a 21-page brief filed Monday that numerous voters were permitted to cast ballots without providing identification to poll workers. The lawsuit claimed those voters should have been given "questioned ballots."
According to a review of election registers in a number of precincts, the complaint alleges many voters "neither presented identification nor were personally known to election officials, yet apparently were permitted to vote anyway, without being given questioned ballots."
The Republican is also still questioning write-in ballots that appear to be filled out in the same handwriting.
Miller adviser Floyd Brown first raised that concern at a news conference over a week ago during the counting process, suggesting vote fraud. State elections officials indicated those ballots were likely the result of voters asking for assistance in filling out their ballot, which Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell has asserted is permitted under state law.
In the lawsuit, Miller argues in order for the write-in vote to count, it must be properly filled out by the voter casting the ballot.
"State law is not a lunch menu where the Lt. Governor can pick and choose which laws he likes and will follow and which ones he doesn’t like. Deliberate indifference to the law cannot be condoned," Miller said in a news release late Monday.
Miller's action sets the stage for a potential hand recount, which the Republican wants to occur once the lawsuit is resolved.
For Republican senators worried about the prospect of Tea Party-backed primary challengers in 2012, scuttling the Democrats’ lame-duck agenda is one of the first lines of defense.
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