http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/04/18/ciresi/April 18, 2007
DFLer Mike Ciresi says the toughness he showed as a trial lawyer in major cases will make him a strong U.S. senator from Minnesota.
St. Paul, Minn. — (AP) - Ciresi joins former comedian Al Franken in seeking the DFL endorsement to face incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in 2008.
During a news conference, Ciresi talked about growing up in a working class St. Paul family and going on to secure a $6 billion settlement from tobacco companies for the state of Minnesota.
He said those values will help him fight for the middle class, which he said is getting squeezed.
Republican Party spokesman Mark Drake acknowledged that Coleman has a tough re-election fight but said voters will be turned off by what he called "tired liberal rhetoric" offered by Ciresi and Franken.
Ciresi is a St. Paul native, the grandson of Sicilian immigrants who put himself through college at St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota Law School.
He started to gain prominence in the 1980s for his work as a trial attorney, extracting multimillion-dollar settlements from companies including A.H. Robins in the Dalkon Shield case and Union Carbide after a poison gas leak in Bhopal, India.
But Ciresi reached the pinnacle of his legal career when the state of Minnesota hired him to lead its lawsuit against the tobacco companies.
His own law firm took home about $550 million in legal fees in that case, further enhancing Ciresi's substantial personal wealth.
Ciresi's first bid for public office came in 2000, when he spent several million dollars of his own money pursuing a U.S. Senate seat only to finish second to Mark Dayton in the Democratic primary.
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Franken also running
Since then he's continued to practice law, but has stayed active in DFL politics and was usually at the top of the list of Democratic candidates for higher office.
When Dayton decided not to seek a second term in 2006, Ciresi reportedly came close to entering the race but ultimately deferred to fellow Democrat Amy Klobuchar, now a U.S. senator.
With Franken already under fire from state Republicans for outrageous jokes he made as a comedian, Ciresi has an opening to present himself to nervous DFL activists as the safe alternative, said former Democratic strategist Blois Olson, co-publisher of the Politics in Minnesota newsletter.
"He's the steady ship, he's the one who can say he's been fighting for regular people for a long time," Olson said, comparing Ciresi to Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, who in 1998 parlayed a successful career as a trial lawyer into a U.S. Senate seat from North Carolina.
While Ciresi and Franken bring dueling heavyweight status to the race, Olson said he expects one or two more mainstream candidates to jump in - perhaps pitching him or herself as a down-to-earth alternative to a Hollywood celebrity on one hand and a millionaire trial lawyer on the other.
State Rep. Joe Atkins and state Sens. Mee Moua and Taryl Clark are mentioned as possible contenders
