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Coleman Wins Senate Seat

Republican Norm Coleman has narrowly defeated Former Vice-President Walter Mondale.

The votes took more than nine hours to count, with the decision coming just after 5am Wednesday.

Coleman's victory over one of Minnesota's revered statesmen was part of a national Republican tide, and a symbol of strength for President Bush. Coleman was the White House's chosen candidate, and Bush and Vice President Cheney visited several times on his behalf.

The fifty-three-year-old Coleman had to remake his campaign when Mondale answered pleas from Democrats and Wellstone's surviving sons to enter the race.

Coleman kept pace with Mondale in the traditionally democratic 8th district in Northeastern Minnesota. Mondale won that district by less than three percentage points. Coleman won five out of the seven remaining districts giving the GOP clear control of the U.S. Senate with 51 seats..

Both campaigns retired for the night around 3am choosing to wait until morning to make concession and victory speeches. They will each hold press briefings later this morning.

The race for the US Senate seat held by the late democratic senator Paul Wellstone has been a closely watched race. Republicans campaigned heavily in the last week to ensure Coleman's election. But Coleman himself worked frantically for the victory, ending his two-year bid for office with a three-thousand-mile travel blitz in the last days. On the final night alone, he campaigned in twice as many cities as Mondale did in his brief campaign.

Coleman's win comes on the heels of a big night for Republicans in Minnesota where they won the Governors race and a number of Congressional seats among others.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

Answers

Posted on Wed, Nov. 06, 2002

Coleman sweeps Mondale aside, takes Senate seat

PATRICK HOWE Associated Press Writer

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesotans sent Norm Coleman to the U.S. Senate in a strong Republican display Tuesday, rejecting calls to honor Sen. Paul Wellstone's memory by putting Walter Mondale in his seat.

Coleman's victory over one of Minnesota's revered statesmen was part of a national Republican tide, and a symbol of strength for President Bush. Coleman was the White House's chosen candidate, and Bush and Vice President Cheney visited several times on his behalf.

But Coleman himself worked frantically for the victory, ending his two-year bid for office with a 3,000-mile travel blitz in the last days. On the final night alone, he campaigned in twice as many cities as Mondale did in his brief campaign.

With 85 percent of precincts reporting, Coleman led Mondale 50 to 47 percent, or 877,934 votes to 825,313.

Both the Coleman and Mondale camps shut down their election night headquarters in the wee hours Wednesday with the race in the balance, and Coleman couldn't immediately be reached when he was declared the winner about 5 a.m.

"I'm pretty sure he's at the hotel sleeping," GOP spokesman Bill Walsh said.

The victory keeps Coleman, the former two-term St. Paul mayor, from taking the losing end of a second straight historic election. He lost the governor's race to Jesse Ventura in 1998.

Coleman's victory gilded a remarkable night for state Republicans. Tim Pawlenty won the governor's race and Republican challenger John Kline defeated Democratic Rep. Bill Luther. The state's congressional delegation is now evenly divided.

Early on, Coleman formulated a campaign based on Wellstone's failings, asking in commercials and debates whether the two-term incumbent could be trusted on his promises or counted on to get things done. But polls shortly before Wellstone's death in a plane crash suggested Coleman was falling back in the race.

Coleman, 53, had to remake his campaign when Mondale, an iconic figure in Minnesota politics, answered pleas from Democrats and Wellstone's surviving sons to enter the race.

Immediately, experts in the state and the nation gave Coleman low chances for success, predicting sympathy for Wellstone and respect for Mondale would combine for a comfortable victory. [Sound of raspberry here.]

But then Wellstone's closest friends and supporters made a monumental miscalculation, handing Republicans a second chance at victory by turning a televised memorial service into a partisan foot-stomp.

The scene offended not just Republicans but some undecided voters, and though Democrats later apologized, the fallout lingered for days.

Coleman pounced, promptly launching a statewide travel blitz that carried through election day and latching on to a new slogan that drew attention to the age difference: "The future is now."

It was evidence of the precise line Coleman walked in running against Mondale. He talked of his grief at Wellstone's death, but held tight to many of the themes he used against Wellstone, such as the Democratic Senate's inability to pass major bills.

He publicly urged his party not to run an ad reminding voters of the darker aspects of Mondale's years in the White House but then used the text of the ad almost verbatim in campaign stops.

Mondale, on his own bus tour of the state, responded with self-deprecating humor. "I've looked into it and there's not much I can do about it," he said of the age question. His campaign aired sober TV ads touting his credentials, including one with the tagline: "Serious Experience."

But Mondale may have overstepped in his own right in the pair's only debate a day before the election, when he went on the attack. He called Coleman's campaign "the poster child for what is wrong in politics," citing its reliance on money from corporations and special interest groups.

"I can be independent," Mondale said. "I owe no one when I go to Washington."

Coleman seized on Mondale's aggressiveness, citing it as an example of a partisan tone that he would work to change in Washington.

It's possible the election outcome could go to court. Many people who voted absentee for Wellstone were unable to cast new ballots.

Mike Erlandson, state Democratic Party chairman, said the party has "no strategy" for a lawsuit in the Senate race, but would not rule one out. "There certainly would be citizens concerned if their votes were not counted," he said.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

What I heard about Monday's debate is that Mondale came off as a doddering old mean fool.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

BrookS, that was the best desciption of it I've heard. Talk about being polite.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

I didn't Mondale had a chance. Was he honestly the best the dems could run?

I think those who did bother to vote yesterday sent a clear message, and candidates who don't heed it will be one-termers.

Here in Ohio, Gov. Taft (R) was re-elected. I have some issues with Taft, but the goober out of Cleveland (Tim Hagan) that the dems ran was a worse loser than Mondale! If Taft keeps at least half of his campaign promises, he'll do okay. Or if he doesn't "do" anything, that might be okay, too.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

MSNBC says Mondale to speak at 10:30. Don't know if that is eastern or central time.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

One of the Fox talking heads said, roughly, that one of the reasons the Dems lost was because they showed us the future and it was Mondale and Lautenberg. And someone else said, "Night of the Living Dems"! LOL!

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002