Since Al Franken barely won a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota after a statewide recount in 2008, the former Saturday Night Live comedian has kept his head down and largely avoided national publicity in an effort not be portrayed as one big joke of a legislator.
But this low-key strategy may be backfiring for the liberal Democratic incumbent now that he faces a challenge in this year’s election from a Republican businessman, who is arguing that the senator should have been out-front more the last six years.
“He’s been invisible as a senator,” his Republican opponent, Mike McFadden, said in a recent phone interview with The Daily Caller from the campaign trail. “He tried to build this narrative that he’s kept his head down. Well, he’s been invisible. He hasn’t done anything. He votes with the president 97 percent of the time.”
McFadden is making this argument as polls show a closer race in Minnesota than the Democratic incumbent would like for people to think. The RealClearPolitics polling average shows Franken up by just 8 points. The National Republican Senatorial Committee is arguing that the contest, which has not gotten much national attention, could be the sleeper race of 2014.
“In Minnesota, everybody believes it is competitive,” McFadden said, dismissing those who in D.C. who don’t see it that way. “If you look at the history of Minnesota races, they don’t break until after Labor Day.”
McFadden noted that while national Democrats may scoff at the notion that the race is competitive, Franken’s campaign recently started running a negative ad against him – a sign that Democrats realize Franken is vulnerable.
“Meet investment banker Mike McFadden,” Franken’s attack ad says. “He’s running for Senate in Minnesota. But McFadden’s business is based right here in Bermuda. That’s right, McFadden’s company uses a special tax loophole to list its headquarters offshore and avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes in America. Mike McFadden. He’s definitely not for you.”
Ask McFadden about his grievances against Franken, and he says: “You start with Obamacare. He was the 60th and deciding vote for Obamacare.”
“Also the 60th and deciding vote for the medical device tax, which in Minnesota is very problematic,” he continued. “We have the largest medical device industry in the world here in Minnesota. The majority of Minnesotans do not like Obamacare. The second issue is, you know, on energy, he’s voted repeatedly against the keystone pipeline. We’re sitting on the doorstep of an energy renaissance in this country.”
McFadden praised current Republican senators like Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson and Tennessee’s Bob Corker for having careers in business before getting involved in politics.
“I’ve not run for office before. I’m proud of that….I think the biggest issue that this country faces institutionally is we’ve created this professional class of politician and its killing us,” he said.
Will he use inflammatory remarks made by Franken as a comedian against him?
“I want to talk about the issues that are in front of us,” McFadden said. “About the economy, about education, about energy, about effective government.”
But McFadden referenced viral video posted online of Franken at a 2012 fundraiser playing with traffic cones as if they were his breasts.
“I think he’s shown a tiger doesn’t change its stripes,” he said.