New York Governor David Paterson has picked Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate.

She’s a member of the Blue Dog caucus in the house (**blarf**), probably because she is in a Republican leaning district, but we have already seen some evidence of moderation, as she recently came out^* for marriage equality and the repeal of DOMA and DADT, so she is making nice with the gay community.

It appears that she has thrown a few elbows, and because of this she is not particularly popular with other members of her delegation.

Additionally, even if she moderates some of her views, I think that the fact that she has a 100% rating from the NRA, and that will antagonize many of the New York state Democrats, particularly Carolyn McCarthy, who is already threatening an aggressive primary challenge.

This is not surprising. Rep. McCarthy takes gun control very personally, as her husband was murdered, and her son gravely injured by the Long Island Rail Road killing spree of Colin Ferguson.

In any case, let’s see how she does over the next year.

^*Pun not intended.

Here is the money quote:

Jackson supported Burris’ effort to claim the seat to which he was appointed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich but criticized him for allowing his supporters to play the race card. This “racialization of the Senate seat is going to be a profound problem for Democrats,” Jackson told Politico.

While I agree with the sentiment, this is Representative Jackson’s first salvo in a primary battle.

In Minnesota, we have about 365 Franken voters filing suit so that they can get their votes counted, and Franken has answered Coleman’s suit with one of his own.

Basically he is arguing that Minnesota elections law requires that Franken now be certified the winner by the Secretary of State and Governor, and they are claiming that a different section of that law forbids it.

Hopefully, this is all over in weeks, rather than months.

Meanwhile, in Rahm Emanuel’s old seat, the Chicago machine cannot decide who to get behind, which gives Tom Geoghegan, who is the only one credible candidate outside the Chicago machine a leg up in the special election.

Geoghegan is a long time labor lawyer and activist, and he is the best candidate running.

We have Democratic Congressman Kendrick Meek announcing that he will run for the seat being vacated by Mel Martinez (R) who is retiring after 1 term.

Meanwhile, in Ohio, the scramble to replace George Voinovich (R) in the Senate proceeds apace, with Rob Portman being the front-runner on the ‘Phant side, and on the Democratic side, it appears that most of Ohio’s Congressional delegation, along with the Lt. Gov and SOS, are considering a run.

It’s no fun being in the minority, so he’s calling it a day.

Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) will not seek reelection in 2010.

He’ll be turning 70 next year, and that, along with the prospect of being in the minority for the foreseeable future, probably led to this decision.

This should be a competitive race.

Minnesota first earlier, so now, let’s lead with Illinois.ABC News: Burris Credential Rejected by Senate Parliamentarian, which is no surprise.

Somehow, I think that Reid will get run over, like he always does.

In the meantime, the Minnesota Canvassing Board has certified Franken the winner, by 225 votes.

Note that state law precludes the issue of an election certificate can be issued for at least a week, and the Coleman camp says that it intends to mount a challenge in the courts.

That being said, the Minnesota Supreme Court has just rejected a challenge by Coleman, which claims that 654 ballots were improperly excluded.

I’m not surprised. They already ruled on this, and Coleman would need to pick up 225 votes, or 34.4% of the total, which would mean that he would need to outpoll Franken by over 2:1, which is simply not in the realm of reality.

The Senate Democrats want to seat Franken, at least provisionally, but Cornyn and the rest of the ‘Phants are promising a filibuster.

Finally, here is a little bonus feature for my reader(s), the future Senator for Minnesota, in tights, doing Mick Jagger : (H/T Josh Marshall)

Not sure where to start, Minnesota, or Illinois….coin flip….Minnesota.

Well, after counting the absentee ballots that both campaigns agreed to, Al Franken’s lead over Norm Coleman has grown to 225. He added 176 votes while counting 933 ballots, which means that Franken polled 18.9% better on absentee ballots.

It appears that Obama’s push on early and absentee balloting paid off here.

Seriusly though, it’s game over, and Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer have both called for Coleman to concede.

The vote is expected to be certified some time today, at which point Coleman is expected to mount a challenge in the courts, but the burden of proof will then be on him.

In the mean time, Harry Reid is sounding a bit more conciliatory towards Roland Burris, saying that, “there’s always room to negotiate.”

I’m not sure what is going on here, except that Harry Reid has gotten played by Rod Blagojevich something fierce.

Well, there is now a number for the absentee ballots that the counties mistakenly rejected, and that number is 1350.

So Franken wants all the ballots that were positively identified as being incorrectly excluded to be counted, which is fair, unless you are a Republican, in which case, I guess that it is communism, because Coleman only wants 136 of those ballots counted….and a “review” of another 654 ballots that aren’t identified as improperly excluded.

Gee, you think that Coleman is trying to ensure only absentee ballots in precincts that went for him get counted? (Cue Captain Renault)

In the meantime, Amy Klobuchar is suggesting that once the vote is certified, that the winner be seated without prejudice by the Senate.

Of course, Senator John Cornyn (R-Taliban) is insisting that this would be outrageous and without precedent, despite the fact that the House seated a representative without prejudice in 2007 (Vern Buchanan), and the Republican controlled Senate did this in 1997 (Mary Landrieu), but Cornyn also believes that there are people out there who want to have sex with box turtles.

BTW, for a quick primer of what the heck has been going on, the St. Paul Pioneer-Press has this useful FAQ.