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Capitol View®
Tom Scheck

Franken chooses Obama’s job center visit over speech

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DFL Sen. Al Franken took part in one of President Obama’s events today, but it wasn't the one that featured 3,500 Obama supporters at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.

Franken joined Obama at the Minnesota Workforce Development Center in Minneapolis. Obama, Franken and U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez visited a class aimed at training young mothers in customer services and sales occupations.

Obama introduced himself to the class, stating the obvious. "I'm Barack Obama. I'm the president."

"Of the United States," Franken added dryly, to laughter, according to a press pool report.

Obama talked about his visit to the workforce center during his speech at Lake Harriet. He said the program he and Franken visited was interesting to him because his mother was in her teens when he was born.

“My mom was a teenage mom, and she was 18 when she had me," Obama said. "And it was a great pleasure to be able to say to all of them that here in this country it is possible for the child of a teenage mom, a single mom to one day be president of the United States”

Franken sent out a statement saying he was pleased Obama made the trip to Minnesota to see some of the important workforce development and training being done in Minnesota.

"As I've traveled across Minnesota, I've seen employers and educators successfully forge partnerships that ensure that future workers are getting the right training to fill jobs that are being created,” Franken said. “It was a good visit and I'm pleased the president is making this a national priority."

But Franken decided against attending the event at Lake Harriet even though other DFL politicians, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Gov. Dayton, appeared and spoke there. DFL Party leaders say the event was aimed at encouraging Democrats to get engaged and vote in November.

Some Republicans said Franken was reluctant to be seen in public with Obama, whose standing in the polls has been slipping.

Franken flatly denied that in an interview.

"No, I would have loved to have gone to Lake Harriet, but I also wanted to be up in Duluth to go to the memorial for Jim Oberstar," he said.

Franken said he couldn't make it to both the workforce development event and the Lake Harriet event, so he chose the former, since it's been an issue that has been important to him. He noted there were plenty of reporters and photographers along.

"I was with the president. I was standing next to him. It was an event the press was invited to," he said.

Franken is on the ballot this November and is expecting a tough re-election contest against Republican businessman Mike McFadden.

Republicans have been working to link Franken to Obama and his policies. They’re hoping that Obama’s low approval ratings have an impact on Franken’s re-election.

Franken contends the workforce issues are paramount to him as a senator.

"This is what I'm working on: Getting people to work, making our manufacturing sector globally competitive, and addressing college affordablity," he said. "That's my focus. And if they want to make silly political arguments about whether I went to this event with the president as opposed to that event, let them do that."

At least one conservative group is looking to capitalize on Obama’s visit to Minnesota.  The St. Paul-based Heartland Campaign Fund says it started running an ad criticizing Franken for voting 100 percent of the time with the president.

Franken is running ads of his own, including one this week saying he pushed legislation that would put barriers up between credit rating agencies and financial institutions.