MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) - Democrat Al Franken declared victory in the hotly-contested Minnesota Senate race Monday, calling the win "incredibly humbling."
Minnesota's canvassing board on Monday certified the results of the recount of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's fight to retain his seat against Franken. The final results showed Franken with a 225-vote lead.
"I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota," Franken told reporters Monday afternoon. "It's clear that we have a lot of important work to do ... I'm ready to go to Washington and get to work as soon as possible."
Coleman's attorney, Tony Trimble, said shortly after the ruling that the campaign plans to file suit.
Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan lashed out at the ruling.
"The efforts of Al Franken, Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer to steal this election and seat Al Franken despite not having an election certificate are unprecedented," Duncan said in a statement. "I am confident that if the law is followed, Norm Coleman will be taking his rightful seat in the U.S. Senate."
Coleman needs to be a man and own up to his short commings in this election so that America can move on. All a suit will do is slow the process but not get him the seat.
Good-bye Mr. Cold Man (Coleman)
...And THAT, Mr. Duncan is the problem: Republican's sense of entitlement to positions of leadership regardless of the will of the people or the political process!
franken will be good for the senate. he liked fistfights.
maybe robert byrd should be first.
Give em hell Al!
I WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT IF PRESIDENT OBAMA IS GONNA
INCLUDE DISABLE PEOPLE THAT ARE DRAWING A SSD CHECK
IN THE STIMULUIS PACKAGE. DISABLE PEOPLE NEED STIMULIS PACKAGE TOO.
Congrats to Minnesota for actually having a process and counting the votes, unlike Florida in 2000. I think Coleman is going to be hard-pressed to complain about what was done and will end up looking like a sore loser. Franken, thankfully, avoided Al Gore's mistakes (e.g. only asking for part of the vote to be recounted).
That said, clearly neither guy had a mandate and no matter what happens they should lead with humility and try to win over the voters they didn't get the first time.
Go Al!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I see tears,knashing of teeth and wailing among the republicans,and I love it.
What did you expect. The Dems wanted some payback from the 2000 election and were able to steal the Minn. Senate election fair and square. When you can find ballets in the truck of cars and additional ballets materialize from nowhere you can be proud to say you can do it better than the Chicago Democratic political machine.
Hopefully, the folks from Minn. will wake up and realize that Franken should have kept his day job as a Left wing Fanatic and marginal comedian.
With the technology we have today it is ashame we have to go to such lengths to win elections.
So
Poor Republicans, did they really think they could win an election? lmao
the cry baby will cry until they say he won
another stupid demo in washington
Notice to all Republicans you have 15 days to get out of Washington so the bright men and women that Americans sent there to do they job you were hired to do and failed. Stop whinning pack your bags and leave.
For those of you posting on here not from Minnesota, you should not be so judgemental. Al Franken ran a marvelous campaign and was very professional at every corner. Norm Coleman on the other hand ran a disgraceful campaign that many people expected to see out of Franken. Instead of basing judgement on the past, you should judge both of these individuals on the actions they have taken throughout the campaign. True, Franken was a comedian, but he also knows there is a time and a place for humor, the Senate floor not being one of those. Coleman does not know these boundries and got what he had coming the past six years.
I think Franken is good enough, smart enough, and doggone it people like him.
Congrats AL
P.S. Franken is much smarter than Jesse.
I love how republicans want to count all the votes now. Is there no end to their hypocrisy. Al wanted to count all the votes and Coleman tried to BLOCK him. They mutually decided on a set of votes that were legitimate and rejected the others. Now the Coleman has lost he wants to try to count the remaining 650. I'm still waiting for Coleman to concede like he said he would had he been in Al's position on the night of the election.
Franken will get the job done,I cant wait till he gets on the Senate floor and cracks his first joke.Of course the republicans wont laugh since they were born without a sense of humor and less is a joke about drowning cats or bashing baby seals.
The analogies to FL are stupid and wrong. First, the Dems designed the ballot, conducted the elections and counted the votes in Palm Beach and Broward counties–the counties of dispute. Second, it seems only Dems were incapable of voting correctly; otherwise, they would have to admit that Repubs voted wrong, too. Third, after all was said and done, the votes were counted by liberal newspapers and other through public access requests to ballots. Bush won in every case. Get informed, folks
Congratulations Al!
go to hell Al.
Job well done, Senator Franken! Coleman needs to stop being a sore loser and should gracefully concede defeat - does anyone remember Alan Alda in "The West Wing?"
The Republican Party is dying off, so let the Democrats do their work and set this country back on the right path.
Hey AL pay your tback taxes so Obama can give them to non working illegals!
@ Mark PDX.....I don't think I would call Franken a clown. He graduated from an ivy league university....did you?
This IS NOT over yet! Stay tuned!!