Minnesotans Should Decide This Election

It seems pretty simple: Minnesotans should decide this election. Each state elects its own Senators and Representatives without the input of other states and peoples; at least, that's how it should be. We don't want another Kansas-Nebraska fiasco. However, something caught our eyes when we received the Franken for Senate press release announcing "that the campaign raised $2.26 million in the second fundraising quarter of 2008." Wow! That's impressive, but wait, the press release also said this: "In total, over 104,000 individuals - including almost 18,000 Minnesotans - have helped the campaign raise more than $11 million with an average contribution of just $64."

Only 17.3% of Franken's contributors are Minnesotans. We don't even know what to say about this, but it's not good. Franken has propelled himself to where he is now because of his massive fundraising, which is fine, but not when non-Minnesotans are changing the course of Minnesota's Senate election. Minnesotans should be the only ones deciding who raises the most money and who can buy the most TV ad time—it's that simple.

We only pick on Franken because his campaign highlighted this fact in its press release; we are sure Coleman's money is no more clean than Franken's. It's already long been established that Coleman gets hundred of thousands of dollars from big oil and special interests. Neither Coleman nor Franken can claim their fundraising numbers represent Minnesotans' feelings. We need to get this election back to the issues and back to the people of Minnesota.