This priceless political fundraising pitch was forwarded to me by colleague Howard Sinker.

It’s an e-mail from Gayle Kagen, wife of Wisconsin Democratic Congressman Steve Kagen: “I’m so proud of my husband…Steve’s 58th birthday is this week. It would be a wonderful gift for Steve to see how many people are behind him and want to keep him in Congress by sending a birthday donation to his re-election campaign fund.”

Don’t you think Steve would be just as touched if you sent him a tie, or even a musical greeting card? And by the way, don’t breathe a word of this to him; I’m sure Gayle thought this up and sent out the e-mail all by herself.

You’ll be happy to know that, if you send a check, Gayle will allow you to do this, too: “You can also include a note of thanks with your donation if you wish.”

While I’m at it, here’s a snippet from a recent fundraising appeal from Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, who relies on the tried and true approach of hoping to cash in by raising the spectre of his opponent — Democrat Al Franken — actually winning:

“You see, Franken is trying to clean up his act. Reinvent himself. He’s cut down on the profanity. Instead of cussing out Republicans he now calls for bipartisanship. Instead of crude jokes about political opponents, he talks civility.

“Liberal donors from across the country get the joke. They know that, if elected, the venomous, deeply partisan Al Franken they know and love will come out on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”

If you have fundraising e-mails or letters that you’re particularly fond of, by all means share them here — or send them to me as the campaign wears on. You can e-mail them to PoliticallyConnected@startribune.com, or mail them to:

Dennis McGrath
Editor, Politically Connected
Minneapolis Star Tribune
425 Portland Ave.
Minneapolis, MN. 55488

Al Franken

Even before today’s official deadline for federal candidates to report their fundraising numbers, one thing is abundantly clear: the left is raking in big money.

That’s true nationally and it’s the case in Minnesota, too.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken is enjoying being on the receiving end of this leftist largess.

Meanwhile, Sen. Norm Coleman and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, both Republicans, are on the receiving end of the spending by leftist groups. They’re both the targets of new television or radio ads critizing them over Iraq (Coleman) and the children’s health insurance battle (Bachmann).

The advantage the left is enjoying is highlighted at OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political money. The OpenSecrets overview is here. From the presidential race to Senate and House races to issue-oriented groups, the left comes out on top.

Norm Coleman

Consider:

Democratic presidential candidates raised an average of $2.2 million to the Republicans’ $1.2 million.

The top two Democrats – Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama — raised a combined $122 million. The top Republicans — Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani — raised $80 million.

Nine out of 10 of the top overall donors have given more than half their money in 2007 to Democrats.

However you slice it, the Democrats end up with the biggest piece of the pie.

And that money is flowing into Minnesota in a big way. OpenSecrets ranks the Minnesota Senate race as the second most expensive in the nation. The Texas Senate race ranked first with $18.5 million raised by the candidates combined, and Minnesota followed close behind with $16.2 million. A distant third was Massachusetts with $8.2 million.

In the most recent quarter, Franken, the Democratic challenger, achieved the rare feat of outraising the incumbent, Coleman. Here’s the Star Tribune story about Franken and Coleman’s fundraising, and here’s our story about money raised by Mike Ciresi.
The radio ad aimed at Coleman is the work of Keeping America’s Promise, which is Sen. John Kerry’s political action committee. Coleman is one of six Republican senators targeted. You can find out more about Kerry’s effort here. And here is Coleman’s campaign website and here is the page we’ve created about him here on Politically Connected.

Michele Bachmann

While Coleman is being hit by a well-known figure, Bachmann is in the sights of a group that isn’t a household name, but it is one of the biggest left-leaning money groups — the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), with 1.9 million members. The SEIU is part of the coalition paying for the TV ads pressing Bachmann to vote later this week to override President Bush’s veto of the children’s health insurance program.

The SEIU’s advocacy arm (a 527 organization), has raised more money than any other 527 group this election cycle, with $6.7 million, according to OpenSecrets. The closest right wing 527 group: GOPAC with $3.7 million. Here’s SEIU’s website and here’s Bachmann’s campaign website and here’s GOPAC’s site.

OpenSecrets cites the fact that Democrats control Congress as a key reason for their fundraising advantage.

Do you think that explains what’s happening? And why do you think the Minnesota Senate race is drawing so much money?

Rep. John Kline

We’ll be recording a new Pig’s Eye Podcast this morning. We hope to have it posted by about 10 a.m. Once we get in front of the microphones, anything is possible, but here’s what we expect to be talking about.

A fugitive on the lam takes the time — bless his felonious little heart — to post a comment on Politically Connected about our podcast.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s enviable 59% job approval rating.

More stirrings in the Minnesota congressional races, including an intriguing Democrat stepping forward to run against John Kline.

The U.S. Senate race, where Al Franken edged out Sen. Norm Coleman in the third-quarter money race.

By the way, if you have a question for the Pig’s Eye Podcast crew — Doug Tice, Lori Sturdevant and me — or want us to address a certain topic, leave a post here, or send an e-mail to politicallyconnected@startribune.com.

Al Franken had some good news to report Thursday. So how did he get the word out?

YouTube.

Al Franken

We’ve seen politicians routinely announce their candidacies on YouTube, instead of at a speech/press conference on the lawn in front of their humble childhood home. We’ve seen them use YouTube to tap into popular culture, as Hillary Rodham Clinton did with her search for a campaign theme song. And we’ve seen Mike Gravel take this rock and toss — well, you tell me what that one’s about. Whatever it is, it’s here.

And now they’re using YouTube to make news, as Franken did by announcing his third-quarter fundraising totals, which exceeded Sen. Norm Coleman’s collections. As the Franken campaign announced on its website: “We released our numbers a little differently this time around — check out our Q3 video to see how well Al did…” Franken’s video is here. And our Washington correspondent Kevin Diaz’s story is here.

So it’s time to take a quick accounting of how the 2008 U.S. Senate candidates are doing on YouTube by looking at the activity on their channels. (Note: Spellings are as their channels appear on YouTube. Numbers are as of 6 p.m. Thursday.)

ciresiforsenate
Joined: May 2007
Last time logged in: 1 month ago
Videos posted: 32
Most viewed video: 494 views
Subscribers to his channel: 7
Channel views: 562
His channel is here.

ColemanforSenate
Joined: April 2007
Last time logged in: 3 weeks ago
Videos posted: 4
Most viewed video: 494 views (Yes, the exact same number as Ciresi.)
Subscribers to his channel: 19
Channel views: 913
His channel is here.

FrankenForSenate
Joined: February 2007
Last time logged in: Thursday morning
Videos posted: 16
Most viewed video: 164,360 views
Subscribers to his channel: 544
Channel views: 7,432
His channel is here.

Two other candidates, Democrats Jim Cohen and Dick Franson don’t have YouTube channels.

How do you rate the candidates in their use of YouTube? Aside from the numbers, which candidate has the best videos? Which of their videos are your favorites?

In a posting earlier this morning I included a link to a Boston Globe story about younger voters and Ron Paul. Here it is again.

Ron Paul campaigning in New Hampshire on Saturday

Now Open Secrets is pointing out that Paul, the Texas congressman and presidential candidate, is displaying surprising fundraising strength — pulling in $1 million a month, largely through small donations and the Internet. With the reports the candidates will soon be filing, Paul apparently will show that he has more money in the bank than John McCain.

And Open Secrets reports this intriguing item: “…we can tell you that more visitors come to OpenSecrets.org looking for information about Ron Paul than anyone else in the field.”

Here is the Open Secrets page on Paul’s fundraising, before this most recent period.

Here’s Politically Connected’s page on Paul, which shows his fundraising from Minnesota residents, his biography and votes and quotes on some key issues. (We’re working on adding more issues.) The page also has blog posts, news from other sources about him and news directly from his campaign.

For what it’s worth, when I was driving to work one morning this week on I-394, I noticed a bunch of “Ron Paul Revolution” banners on the overpasses — the first ones of any presidential candidate that I’ve seen like that.

Our new Star Tribune Minnesota poll, which we published Tuesday on Politically Connected, picked up negligible support for Paul in Minnesota — just 2 percent. Here’s the poll story and the here’s a graphic showing results for all Republican candidates.

But Paul appears to be one of those candidates who — at least at this stage — has a relatively small but very fervent base of supporters. The question is how broad will it become, and in what way, if any, will Paul affect the Republican primaries and caucuses?

Minnesota Republicans this morning took aim at Al Franken for raising money for his U.S. Senate campaign at the Washington, D.C., home of Smith Bagley, an heir to the RJ Reynolds tobacco fortune. Franken has inveighed against “big tobacco,” the Republicans point out, calling his fundraiser “big hypocrisy.”

Franken isn’t the first Democratic Senate candidate from Minnesota to visit the Bagley home in search of money. In September 1990, Paul Wellstone knocked on the Bagley’s door looking for help, and he got a cool reception.  

I was covering Wellstone’s campaign that year and I trailed along with him and his aides on their largely unsuccessful fundraising trip. Here’s an excerpt from a story I wrote after the 1990 election about Wellstone’s upset win:

The Georgetown mansion of Elizabeth and Smith Bagley is their first
after-lunch fund-raising call.

     Smith Bagley is an heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune
who has split from the family business. Elizabeth Bagley likes to
work for and contribute to the campaigns of progressive candidates.
The couple are friends of former President Jimmy Carter, as
evidenced by a photograph of their infant daughter being bounced on
Carter’s knee. They were also big givers and fund-raisers in the
Dukakis campaign in 1988.

     Wellstone and his aides are greeted at the door by Lilly, a
maid whose salmon-colored uniform matches the marble in the foyer. A
Rembrandt hangs in the library.

     Elizabeth Bagley enters from the dining room, where candelabra
the size of rose bushes adorn the table. She is deeply tanned and
has recently returned from a vacation on Nantucket Island, off
Massachusetts, where she and her husband socialized with Sen. Ted
Kennedy - and with Boschwitz, a friend of Kennedy’s.

     Wellstone makes a brief presentation, stressing the grass-roots
nature of his campaign and his progressive politics.

     Bagley names a dozen people, asking if Wellstone has contacted
them and if they’ve contributed. Wellstone and Norm Kurz, a
Washington-based fund-raiser, admit that most haven’t been contacted
or won’t return their calls.

     Sensing that Bagley thinks he’s lazy, Wellstone tells about his
three-shirt-a-day primary campaign:

     “I haven’t been in a cafe in Minnesota in a year and a half
where there hasn’t been 30 to 35 people, sometimes 100, not for a
rally, just to talk about issues. Then I come here (Washington) and
it’s always, `I don’t know your name.’ ”

     Bagley says, “It’s a cynical town. And you’re one of many,
too.”

     Indeed, Lilly has greeted many candidates standing at her
employers’ front door with their hands out. When Kurz had asked for
an audience, Bagley says, she thought, “Oh, God, do I really have to
talk to one more person?”

      “I really have never even heard your name,” she says. “Whose
fault is that?” The question goes unanswered.

     Bagley agrees to make fund-raising calls on Wellstone’s behalf,
but she doesn’t say if she’ll write a check herself.

     She leads the group on a house tour. Through the foyer, into an
enclosed courtyard, down a flight of stairs to an underground
swimming pool, enclosed by marble columns and glass. The pool took
two years to build and is patterned after a pool at a Hong Kong
hotel.

     Then it’s through an exercise room with mirrored walls and a
ballet barre and into a casual family room with a large-screen TV.
As they walk back through the exercise room, Wellstone is so deeply
engaged in conversation with Bagley that he walks into one of the
mirrored walls.

     Outside, he laughs about it.

     “I just spent an hour and a half trying to impress this woman
and then I walk into a mirror and I almost break my nose. I’m not
used to being in places like this.”