McCollum Expresses Concern About Franken Candidacy

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) publicly criticized her party’s likely Senate nominee, comedian Al Franken, for a satirical column he wrote for Playboy magazine in 2000, calling his writings “pornographic” and “indefensible.”

McCollum told the Associated Press that she found the article offensive and believes it will be a serious political problem for the party’s downballot Congressional candidates. McCollum had endorsed Franken’s primary rival, attorney Mike Ciresi, before he dropped out of the race.

Franken’s eight-year-old article, titled “Porn-O-Rama,” describes a visit to an imaginary sex institute where he takes part in sexual acts with humans and machines. The column included many graphic sexual descriptions.

According to a state Democratic source, all five Democrats in the Minnesota Congressional delegation recently met and expressed serious concerns about Franken’s impact down-ballot on their Congressional campaigns.

“There was unanimity that this was a problem for our House candidates in Minnesota – we’ve got three races here as well as other races down-ticket. The question that came up was how can our candidates stand with this guy?” the Democratic operative told the Politico.

“We’re looking at having these pornographic writings tagged onto Democrats. That doesn’t seem to be a good strategy to expand our majorities in the House.”

The Franken campaign could not be immediately reached, but Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr told the AP that Minnesota voters understand the difference between satire and the responsibilities of a senator.

Franken is the likely Democratic nominee against Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who faces a rough election environment as he runs for re-election. Polls have shown him vulnerable, but narrowly leading Franken in head-to-head matchups.
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