Franken brings his Senate campaign to Storm Lake

Abby Finkenauer is watching her flank as Mike Franken makes another run for the Democratic US Senate nomination.

Franken said during a visit to Storm Lake and Pocahontas on Saturday that his April fundraising numbers will “make national waves” and he will give Finkenauer a much tougher time than Theresa Greenfield had two years ago with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s thumb on the primary scale.

“We’re full steam ahead and doing well,” the retired Navy admiral said.

Franken, 64, said during an interview and at a well-attended fundraiser at the Steve and Diane Hamilton Casino Beach home that his key to victory over Sen. Chuck Grassley will be the 38% of independent voters who swung from Obama to Trump in 2016.

He says that group sees us backsliding on democracy, is tired of dysfunction, and is confused by rhetoric that says wrong is right and Putin is a Democrat.

“We are going to be the state,” Franken said. “We are going to play pool and sing in the choir. We’re gonna go. We’re going to say yes to the Christian radio station and Simon Conway on WHO.”

He already started by visiting Sioux Center where he talked with a bunch of Dordt students in a bar about all the things that Republicans haven’t done for rural Iowa. “Nobody gave me the finger. I got a golf clap at the end,” he said.

It’s where he grew up, around his dad’s machine shop in Sioux County, one of the rare Lutherans to be found. He thinks he can get 30% of the county’s vote against Grassley because he knows the place and they know his family.

He thinks they will listen to a physicist about renewable energy. He says he has credibility on national security, having commanded the African fleet. He says he has the details from years as a Pentagon advisor on loan to Congress. And he thinks people will appreciate his integrity for quitting the Navy when Trump became president.

“That was not for me. I spent 40 years fighting for democracy,” Franken said. “This is b------- and I am going to do something about it.”

He’s super smart, no doubt, with advanced degrees and a world of experience. He likes to talk military stuff and uses big words. He brushes off opponents. He calls Finkenauer “part of a process” to winning the Senate seat. If he wins, he will be the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to Congress. He does not give a speech, he takes questions.

Grassley polls well against any comer and already has $4 million in the bank. He has served a half-century in Washington. He has been the most popular politician in Iowa. How can Finkenauer or Franken imagine beating him?

“I am the Iowa GOP’s worst nightmare,” Franken said.

It’s hard to one-up him on guns. He knows Ukraine better than Rudy Giuliani. Frustrated White men in camo might salute him when he tells them they’ve been getting ripped off as wage slaves by mega-corporations. He thinks voters hunger for integrity and a real story. He thinks Grassley’s aw-shucks farmer ads are thin gruel to the supper Franken intends to serve.

But he did get beat by Theresa Greenfield. He does not speak like Tom Harkin, or even Tom Vilsack. He likes to trade in talk of geopolitics. Unions are not walking over coals for him, although he did his time at the chitlins table at SiouxPreme Pack during college summers. Finkenauer preaches old-time union politics. Franken doesn’t mind going cerebral for his unique selling proposition, and thinks it plays well against Grassley.

Will that sell with voters? Somebody who is running because he says he has a top-flight brain and education, that he believes in the oath he swears, and he actually knows how the Pentagon operates. You would think voters might want that as we sit on the precipice of World War III. Yet, the opponent is Chuck Grassley. Both Finkenauer and Franken say he never has had an opponent who could really lay into him. There might be a reason for that. 

Art Cullen is the publisher and editor of The Storm Lake Times. He won the the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 2017 and is the author of the book “Storm Lake: A Chronicle of Change, Resilience, and Hope from a Heartland Newspaper.” Cullen can be reached at times@stormlake.com.