Coleman Apparently Laying Groundwork For Appeal

[babylonsister]

Coleman Apparently Laying Groundwork For Appeal
By Eric Kleefeld - February 17, 2009, 12:36PM


Norm Coleman's legal team is clearly getting an early start on a very important task: Laying the groundwork for an appeal.

Yesterday they asked the court to reconsider their ruling to not count certain categories of rejected ballots. And today they've continued to submit evidence from one of those categories into the record, ballots for which the voter failed to sign the application form.

The reason you would continue to submit evidence in a rejected category, to put it simply, is to make an appeal much easier. Coleman's team is building up the evidentiary record that can be used in an appeals court -- or perhaps the Senate itself -- and the evidence will be assembled in case a higher judge rules with them as a matter of law that they should be counted.

So there you go.

In another piece of news, the court today granted the Franken team's request to be able to modify and expand the pool of rejected ballots that they'll be allowed to plead from, after the court had previously given a similar permission to Coleman. It should be noted that the court waited until after last week's key ruling to not count certain kinds of ballots, before formally giving Franken this new go-ahead.

In other words, the Franken camp is on notice for which types of ballots they shouldn't bother with. Their new submission is due on Friday.

more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/coleman-apparently-laying-groundwork-for-appeal.php

[NewJeffCT]

1. Is this the same Norm Coleman

that said on November 5th when he was ahead about a few votes that Al Franken should concede because he would do the same if he was in Al's shoes?

Or was that another Norm Coleman and this is not a mind-boggling amount of hypocrisy?

[Beetwasher]

Can Someone Please Explain To Me WHAT Is Going To STOP COLEMAN

From constantly filing friviolous lawsuits for the next 6 years in order to keep Franken from being seated?

If he can do so, he will continually keep filing lawsuits for 6 years until the term is up. What is to stop him from doing so? Anyone know? IS there anything or can he keep doing this????

[babylonsister]

3. I wish I could, but not a clue here. And I'd love to know who's

bankrolling all this.

[Beetwasher]

5. It Seems To Me That This Is Precisely His Strategy

Keep it tied up in court for as long as humanly possible, preferably right up until the end of the 6 year term. Yeah, the bankrolling could be interesting.

[stewert]

9. Dick Morris And Other Republicans.........

Morris was on the factor a couple weeks ago talking about the recount, and in a column he published that same day on newsmax.com, headlined "Stop Al Franken From Stealing the Election."

The column included a link to the Republican National Lawyers Association, which is raising money to assist Coleman's election lawsuit, with a direct endorsement from Morris.

The RNC is also funding him because they do not want to lose that all important Senate seat. Business groups were also funding him. He also used some campaign funds to pay attorney fees, which may be illegal.

He even set up a legal defense fund to take donations.

From a 2-2-09 article at MPR:

Norm Coleman and Al Franken's Senate campaigns raised millions of dollars from the November election through the end of last year. The campaigns had help from the Democratic and Republican parties in Minnesota. And the fundraising continues as Coleman's election contest lawsuit enters it's second week.

The money that's funding Minnesota's U.S. Senate race recount battle is coming from two sources: the campaigns' internal efforts and joint fundraising committees each has set up with their respective political party.

Including money from their joint committees, Franken led Coleman slightly in recount fundraising with more than $3.2 million compared to Coleman's $3.1 million.

Contributors to the Coleman fund include former Bush White House strategist Karl Rove and Hubbard Broadcasting executive Stanley Hubbard.

Although Franken raised slightly more money, Coleman ended the year with more recount cash on hand -- more than $2 million compared to Franken's less than $ 1.5 million.

Like the Franken campaign, the Coleman side is happy with it's 2008 recount fundraising, said Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich.

In addition to the millions the two campaigns raised, tens-of-thousands of dollars of joint fundraising committee money also ended up going to the state DFL and Republican parties. The parties can use the money to help the campaigns pay recount-related expenses.

The newly released numbers do not include 2009 fundraising, and both campaigns, along with their joint committees, are still raising recount money.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is putting together a fundraiser for Coleman next week.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/02/recount_campaign_money/

[aquart]

7. What's sauce for the goose...

There's a lesson to be learned. Time we learned it, too.

[Beetwasher]

8. That Doesn't Answer My Question

:shrug:

[Epiphany4z]

2. good gawd

just make him stop.......:banghead:

[rurallib]

4. If the court rules in Franken's favor, will he be seated while Coleman appeals?

[jkshaw]

10. Also, could Reid use some procedure to go ahead

and seat Franken as a voting senator and, as he was proclaimed weeks ago, senator elect?

It's more than obvious that this drawn out legal maneuvering is to keep the Senate from getting another vote. I wonder why the court is not cognizant of that and acting accordingly.

[rurallib]

12. think Harry would dare do anything after the Burris crap

Reid so fucking afraid of the RW talkers he won't step up.

[firedupdem]

6. This is ridiculous! How many times can this asshole do this?

I know the GOP is funding all this but it really needs to stop!

[riverdeep]

11. Minnesota really needs to rethink some of its laws here.

This is going on four months and that's too long. Coleman's team knows they've lost and just want to bleed Franken dry. I heard on a radio show that Franken had to raise 5 million AFTER the election to pay for these efforts.

[elocs]

13. If this were the other way around and Franken was the one behind

I don't think I'd hear a lot of complaints here about how long the process is taking. It's only that MN has as good an electoral process as it does that it has gotten this far without having been called for Coleman early on. The fact of the matter is that MN has one of the best electoral processes in the nation with paper ballots that can be recounted. This is a very, very unusual election and I don't think it is up to me to point a finger at MN and to tell them what to do. They have a legal process that needs to be played out. Just because Coleman can appeal does not mean that Franken will not be seated after these electoral judges make their ruling.

[Bake]

14. If Minnesota is like most states, he has ONE shot at an appeal.

That is, any issues on which he thinks the lower court erred must be raised in his initial appeal. In some states, he would appeal to an intermediate appellate court, and then (if he loses there) to the state Supreme Court. In others, he would appeal straight to the stte's highest court. Regardless, he has to raise all issues in the appeal or lose them.

Of course, if he loses at all levels of the state's courts, he can always try to gin up a federal question and go through the federal judiciary.

Bake