Book Review: This is Not Florida by Jay Weiner

This Is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the Minnesota Senate Recount by Jay Weiner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On November 4, 2008, an historic election took place that would determine policies that would affect the entire nation, but the winner wouldn’t be determined until the following June. This is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the Minnesota Senate Recount by Jay Weiner shows how a vicious mudslinging campaign turned into a long dragged-out recount fight that put the state of Minnesota centerstage on how the Senate would operate.

To put the 2008-9 Minnesota recount in context, Weiner explains how it got to that point through the mistakes of the Franken campaign and the truly mudslinging exchanges between the two campaigns that resulted in the Obama campaign deciding not making one appearance in the state that they had in the bag. Once the recount began, Weiner explains how the Franken campaign after getting a tip to a wrongly rejected absentee ballot turned their focus to getting all legal ballots to be counted while the Coleman campaign went into “prevent defense” since they had the most votes on election night and wanted to keep it that way. These decisions at the very outset would ultimately decide the outcome of the recount in the Election Contest trial, but before that the hand recount revealed that Franken had more votes before the wrongly rejected absentee ballots were event counted and increased Franken’s lead. After Coleman challenged the results of the hand recount, his campaign’s inadequate examination of wrongly rejected absentee ballots came to rooster as the Franken campaign ran circles around them during the trial and even increased their lead through their preparation and rejecting Coleman’s initial strategy of “prevent defense”. The unanimous ruling of the three judges at the end of Election Contest trial and the unanimous ruling of Minnesota Supreme Court—after Coleman appealed—certified Franken’s victory.

This book was based on Weiner’s own coverage of the entire recount saga, but while Franken and Coleman were the candidates the really “stars” of the book were their lawyers. Drawn from around the nation—besides the local lawyers hired by the campaigns—and specializing in recounts in which they faced one another numerous times including Florida in 2000 which was always referenced to by Weiner in comparison and contrast. To Weiner the entire process of Minnesota law regarding a recount worked, but like the Secretary of State and others said afterwards the fact that legal absentee ballots were rejected showed something needed to be corrected for the future though not all the changes Weiner thought were necessary have been enacted.

With the backdrop of the 2000 Florida recount as well as a filibuster proof majority in the balance, the Minnesota recount put the state in the political crosshairs. This is Not Florida shows how and why the events of the recount happened from the perspective of a journalist who had to cover every twist and turn. Jay Weiner covers the main players and events thoroughly through a tightly written 288 pages that any political junkie will appreciate.

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