So today, the Minnesota senator candidates from the two major parties had their one and only debate at 11 a.m. ET.
Jesse Ventura, who had previously agreed to appoint the winner of tomorrow's election as the senator to finish out the current session (which ends in January), was miffed at the tone of the memorial service/campaign rally on Tuesday, and so he appointed an independent instead, and he did it shortly after 11 a.m. today, briefly upstaging the debate.
Now, the makeup of the U.S. Senate is 49-49-2, with the President of the Senate holding the tiebreak vote for the Republicans. The Senate could hold new leadership elections now, just as they did in the opening months of the Congress almost two years ago, when a Republican senator became an independent. That independent voted for the Democrats; if this new independent would vote Republican, then Trent Lott would be the Majority Leader for the first few, and last few, months of the Congress, whereas Tom Daschle had all the months in between.
Weird.
In the debate, Mondale was very snippy, while Coleman was quite polite. I don't know which will appeal more to the MN voters, but they both seemed to hold their own on the issues.
