The Al Franken campaign announced today that Stephanie Schriock (pictured below at right) will manage his bid to oust Sen. Norm Coleman. Schriock, a Mankato native, has a lengthy political resume, most recently serving as chief of staff for Montana Sen. Jon Tester. She also worked as campaign manager for Tester's successful 2006 bid to unseat three-term incumbent Conrad Burns -- considered one of the biggest electoral upsets in recent memory.

Schriock has experience running two prior federal legislative races in Minnesota. She helmed Bill Luther's re-election campaign in 1998 and served as finance director for Mary Rieder's unsuccessful bid to oust former Rep. Gil Gutknecht in 1996.

Political observers say the appointment is almost certainly the handiwork of Sen. Charles Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and is a prime signal that the national party intends to make a substantial effort to defeat Coleman. Coleman's Senate seat has long been viewed as one of the most vulnerable in the country currently held by a Republican incumbent.

The move, however, comes at a time when the Franken camp has been beset by questions about his personal finances, most notably failing to properly pay $50,000 in income taxes in 17 states. Recent polls have consistently shown him trailing Coleman by up to 10 points.

DFL'ers and political analysts have been grumbling for weeks about the lack of a seasoned political operative at the top of Franken's staff. "What took so long?" asks Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. "If they'd had a proven individual two years ago a lot of the trouble they've run into probably could have been avoided."

Jacobs and others point out that Franken's record should have been stringently vetted well before the campaign got underway so that any potential controversies could be dealt with internally. "When I hear and see these tax stories, that's a signal to me that they don't know what they're doing," he says.

Jacobs points to three areas that the campaign must deal with immediately if Franken is going to present a credible threat to Coleman in November. Foremost the candidate's background must be thoroughly scrutinized to ensure that there won't be any more embarrassing news developments. In addition, he argues that the campaign's spending needs to be tightened and Franken's sometimes cantankerous dealings with the media must improve. "Put some handcuffs and maybe even a gag on Franken," Jacobs suggests. "He's got to be put under control. The upside is he's got plenty of time."

Hamline political science professor David Schultz is hardly more kind in assessing the state of the Franken campaign. "Is this the classic putting lipstick on a pig?" he asks. "Does Franken have fundamentally bigger problems that changing campaign managers won't solve?"

Schultz is struck by the static nature of the polls in recent weeks. "Unless the Franken campaign can get a bunch of people to rethink Coleman and therefore rethink Franken the race is over."

President Bush must be thanking his dim stars that the Democratic election has become so heated it's taken precedence over any news about the ongoing Iraq quagmire. In fact, one the biggest Iraq stories in the news this week came only when Bush told reporters he gave up golf because of the Iraq War. Families give up sons and daughters. Soldiers give up limbs and minds. Bush gives up a game.

Despite the lack of attention it's received of late, violence continues to escalate in the region. Both the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs release new numbers every week regarding deaths, casualties, and VA patients. Below is a breakdown of the current toll of the Iraq War.

Minnesota deaths: 60

Minnesota casualties: 502

Total confirmed U.S. deaths as of May 16, 2008:: 4,077

Number of deaths since Jan 1, 2008: 162

Total listed as wounded in action as of May 3, 2008: 30,004

Number evacuated due to injury or illness: 32,248

Number of soldiers from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to suffer from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): More than 320,000, or about 20 percent of all soldiers deployed, nearly all which are not listed as WIA by the DoD and are only diagnosed later.

Number of vets diagnosed with PTSD: 300,000, or about 18 percent of all soldiers deployed.

Sources: Department of Defense, the Associated Press, Veterans for Common Sense, icasualties.org

Conservative Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten this morning called out an online petition that demands her firing. The petition (which has 191 signatories at present -- hardly the "droves" Kersten writes of, although since she drew attention to it, the numbers are steadily climbing) accuses Kersten of "journalistic malpractice" for her columns on the majority-Muslim charter school Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, which reportedly resulted in threats and additional security at the Inver Grove Heights elementary school.

One signatory of the petition might lend more credence to that criticism than most: the Pioneer Press' David Hanners, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the Dallas Morning News in 1989, was the eighth to sign. (Note: the Anne O'Connor named in the petition is not the former Strib reporter, who now lives in Wisconsin.)

Reached by email, Hanners expanded on his comments:

"Granted, asking another newspaper to re-consider a columnist's writing is a grave step and one I don't take lightly. As someone who takes his professional ethics very seriously, I've always refrained from signing petitions involving anything, even for those earnest folks who come to the front door and ask me to support 'clean water.' I've never done anything like this, and I've read some pretty disagreeable columnists over the past 30 years. But on a professional level, when Kersten does stuff like this, it reflects upon all of us who have to go out there day after day and try to get people to talk to us for stories. Oftentimes, the reading public doesn't differentiate between columnist and reporter; even 'sophisticated' readers like the guys at Power Line refer to her as a 'reporter' in their defense of her. Folks tend to lump us all into the same pile, and our jobs are very different. While columnists should be granted wide latitude in expressing opinion, they -- like reporters -- have to maintain fidelity to facts. They can't make them up and they can't burn them beyond recognition to fit some pre-determined view."

Hanners acknowledges personal interest in the story, based on his faith, but says it's a  belief in journalistic principles that drove his thinking. "Being Muslim (and I have no connection to TIZA) may make me more sensitive to the issue in this case, but religion really has little to do with it," he wrote. "As a profession, we have certain standards we must maintain. Given the questions raised in this instance, as well as other concerns that have been raised involving her columns, I don't believe it is extraordinary that Kersten's employer check to see if those standards are being upheld."

In her post, Kersten mentions Scott Johnson's "valiant stand" in defending her at the blog Power Line (while Johnson regularly mentions his friendship with Kersten, she doesn't disclose that relationship here) and reprints Johnson's entire post. She also complains that state Rep. Mindy Greiling, in her audio interview with Minnesota Monitor, called her a "thug." (Greiling visited TIZA and found the school exemplary in fulfilling its mandate to accommodate religion, calling it an "impressive" school.) But on this point, Kersten misleads: She leaves out key context, that Greiling was responding to Power Line's claim that the Star Tribune and Greiling were committing an "act of thuggery" for running a letter to the editor.

Kersten also points out that Coleen Rowley, FBI whistleblower and onetime Congressional candidate, signed the petition. Rowley confirms that she did sign, but says she never received a call from Kersten verifying the fact.

Related: Kersten's St. Thomas column nothing 'to be particularly concerned about,' says her editor

Today is the deadline for members of Congress to file their 2008 personal financial disclosure forms. The documents aren't required to be posted electronically at present so it will be some time before they're readily available to the public. But a new web site created by the Sunlight Foundation provides some interesting insight into the personal wealth of Minnesota's Congressional delegation.

The Fortune 535 site highlights the incomes of federal legislators and tracks how their wealth has changed since arriving in Congress. Unfortunately these numbers are merely ballpark estimates. Because legislators are only required to disclose financial ranges (e.g. $15,000 to $50,000) for their assets and liabilities, it's impossible to come up with precise measurements of wealth.

But these calculations still produce some eye-popping figures. Most legislators, unsurprisingly, are much better off financially than when they first arrived in Washington. Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, has seen his personal wealth balloon by $200 million in the eight years that he's served in the House--more than any other member of Congress. 

The most glaring figure from the Minnesota delegation is the net worth (or lack thereof) of Rep. Tim Walz for 2006: -$364,000. Among Walz's liabilities: a home mortgage valued at between $250,000 and $500,000, a home equity loan estimated at $50,000 to $100,000, and three different credit card debts running between $10,000 and $50,000.

Meredith Salsbery, Walz's director of communications, attributes his financial situation to the freshman legislator's background as a modestly-paid teacher, along with a leave of absence to run his 2006 campaign. "They just incurred some additional debt while campaigning to serve the people of the first district," she says. "It's pretty understandable when you go on unpaid leave."

Also among the Congressional paupers: Rep. Keith Ellison, with an estimated net worth of under $19,000. Only 35 of his legislative colleagues reported less wealth in 2006.

Perhaps Walz and Ellison should seek out some financial advice from fellow Democrat (and 33-year-legislative veteran) James Oberstar. In 2006 he was the richest member of the Minnesota delegation, according to the Sunlight Foundation, with a net worth of roughly $7 million. In 1978, the first year that legislators were required to release personal financial data, the only asset that Oberstar reported was a certificate of deposit valued at between $5,000 and $15,000. Today his stock holdings are in the millions.

Rep. Jim Ramstad will be leaving Congress with few worries about his financial future. The Republican legislator, who is stepping down after nine terms, reported roughly $6.5 million in assets at the end of 2006. That's up from roughly $500,000 in assets in 1995.

The next wealthiest members of the Minnesota delegation: Michele Bachmann, Amy Klobuchar, Norm Coleman, John Kline, Betty McCollum, and Collin Peterson.

Minnpost's Doug Grow this week introduced readers to Barb Davis White, the GOP-endorsed candidate for the 5th Congressional district.

Davis is running on the hopes that Minneapolitans find Rep. Keith Ellison of the DFL "too liberal." Davis White might need to revisit the various voting blocs in the district.

Despite the district's large number of immigrants, Davis White firmly advocates for border fences, says that "legal immigrants must assimilate into our culture rather than try to retain an old one" and advocates that English be the official language of the United States.

She's staunchly pro-life in a pro-choice state. Polls consistently show that Minnesotans identify themselves as pro-choice, and the people of Minneapolis and the first-ring suburbs that constitute the 5th are undoubtedly more pro-choice than the state as a whole.

She strongly opposes rights for same-sex couples, saying, "That's the way of God.''

The 5th is home to one of the largest concentrations of same-sex couples in the country. It's also ranked 10th in the nation (out of 435) in gay, lesbian and bisexual population size with an estimated 42,124 eligible voters.

"With my background there's nowhere in Minneapolis I can't go and be comfortable,'' Davis White told Minnpost. Has she been to the Gay 90s?