A couple developments in the US Senate race in Minnesota have helped to give incumbent Senator Norm Coleman (R) quite a bit to smile about. Coming in to the filing deadline today he faced the prospect of a potentially strong challenger in comedian Al Franken and the loss of support to the 3rd party candidacy of former Governor Jesse Ventura.
But as it turns out things went much better for the freshman Senator. Ventura has announced he will not be a candidate in November and a wealthy attorney named Lord Faris will challenge Franken in the Democratic primary. Faris has said she is running because she doubts Franken could win, and he has been trailing in recent polls.
However the primary fight will only serve to drain Democratic resources while Coleman is able to start his general election campaign early, taking time to boost his own image while the two Democrats bloody each other up. In a year marked by generally bad news for Senate Republicans this is a spot of good news.