Franken-Coleman Update, 01/13/09: Show Us The Money, Here Come The Judges

I’ve been wondering how Norm Coleman’s been able to finance his near-constant series of legal actions.   So, apparently, does the Minnesota DFL party, the local branch of the Democrats.  Per the DFL’s press release:

At a press conference this afternoon at the Minnesota State Capitol, Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez announced the filing of a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman and the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA).

The complaint, filed today with the FEC, alleges that: the RNLA is funding Coleman’s recount committee with illegal contributions in excess of legal limits; the RNLA is funding Coleman’s recount committee with illegal contributions from corporations; the RNLA has failed to register with the FEC, as its contributions to Coleman’s recount require it to; and Coleman has failed to report any contributions from the RNLA.

Ah, yes, the RNLA.  They’re the ones who got Toesucker Dick Morris to lend his, ahem, good name to an anti-Franken fundraising appeal.  They’re the ones sliming ACORN when they’re not sliming Franken or any other person to the left of Reinhard Heydrich.   But the RNLA isn’t Coleman’s only source of funds.  There’s Nasser Kazeminy, of course.  There’s also Norm’s own house, which he’s refinanced a dozen times in the last fourteen years.

While the legality of Norm’s lucre is being examined, Supreme Court Justice Alan Page has announced the identities of the three judges who will serve on the contest panel to adjudicate Coleman’s lawsuit:  Elizabeth Hayden, a Perpich appointee (DFL) from St. Cloud in Stearns County, in the state’s Seventh Judicial District;  Kurt Marben, a Ventura appointee (Independence Party) from Thief River Falls in Pennington County, in the Ninth District; and Denise Reilly, a Hennepin County (Fourth District) judge who was appointed by Arne Carlson, who was a Republican at the time but is now an independent and has gone so far as to endorse Barack Obama for president. 

A big chunk of Norm’s case rests on the idea that 654 ballots from Republican-leaning areas that his people cherry-picked from the rightfully-rejected absentee ballot pile were in fact wrongly rejected.  However, as both Nate Silver and the StarTribune explain, this is not likely to be the case:  Out of the 654, a small handful have been found to be allowable into the count.  That’s nowhere near enough to swing it for Norm.   Meanwhile, Al Franken’s come out swinging with a motion to dismiss the Coleman case, and a counterclaim asking for the counting of 35 absentee ballots from Duluth (a DFL stronghold) that were improperly rejected:

Elias also announced that the campaign will be filing a counterclaim to Coleman’s legal contest in Ramsey County District Court today. In addition to rebutting Coleman’s petition, which Elias characterized as “riddled with errors,” it will lay out three groups of voters that the Franken campaign believes had their ballots wrongly rejected during the recount.

The first class consists of 35 Duluth voters whose absentee ballots were rejected because their signatures were improperly dated — which isn’t one of the four reasons laid out in state statute for why a ballot can be properly invalidated. The second group consists of 87 ballots for which the Franken campaign had submitted affidavits to the state Canvassing Board supporting the belief that they were wrongly rejected. Finally, there is a group of roughly 700 ballots that the Franken campaign has scrutinized less rigorously, but believes may have been improperly invalidated.

There actually looks to be a stronger case for these 35 ballots than there is for the 654 that Coleman wants counted.  Hold onto your hats, people, because things are going to get really interesting.