April 14, 2009

Coleman’s Appeal

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From USA Today:

A Minnesota court court has confirmed that Democrat Al Franken won the most votes in his 2008 Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman, The Associated Press reports.

But, as the saying goes, it ain’t over til it’s over. Coleman already had said he would appeal such a decision to the state Supreme Court. He has 10 days to file.

So here’s something to watch for: how long will it take Coleman to file his appeal?  He’s known this decision was coming for a long time.  His legal team almost certainly knew the grounds on which he was going to lose.  They’ve had plenty of time to prepare their argument.  They could probably file it tomorrow if they wanted to.

But do they want to?  If they’re genuinely trying to win a Senate seat, they’ll file quickly.  After all, the faster they file, the faster Coleman can win the case and return in triumph to Washington.  But if they don’t think they can win — if they’re merely trying to stretch out a losing argument as long as possible in order to deny Franken his seat — then they’ll wait the ten full days.  Which do you think it will be?

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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