When I was 15, humorists like Al Franken and Bill Maher spurred my interest in politics and shaped my liberal ideals.

Now Franken, formerly a Saturday Night Live actor and host of liberal Air America Radio, is running to defeat Norm Coleman (R-MN) in 2008. His Minnesota campaign has come on great success, matching Coleman and the RNC in fund raising dollars and rising to the top of the Democratc primary field.

Two people now remain for the Democratic Party nomination (known as the Democratic-Farmer Labor Party (DFL) in MN): Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallemeyer, a professor at the University of St. Thomas. On March 10th, Franken’s top Democratic opponent, trial lawyer Mike Ciresi, dropped out of the race, allowing Franken to focus his energy and step up his campaign against Republican Coleman.

One of the greatest hurdles to his campaign have been questions over Franken’s seriousness: is Franken actually serious about running? In the past he has wrote books criticizing far right ideologues such as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly, and he has wrote extensively about the bias and simple absurdity of the Fox News Channel. An iconic liberal humorist, is Franken actually running to become a United States Senator in 2008?

With absolutely certainty, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Al Franken has serious plans to end the war in Iraq, bring health care to all Americans, fund our public schools and initiate a massive Apollo-like energy program to start a new era of alternative energy. His campaign has laid out detailed plans at his website.

A recent poll by Rasmussen had Franken leading slightly in a head-to-head match up against Coleman, 49-46 (3% difference). There is still time to grow his lead, but so far Franken is the only Democrat to beat Coleman in the fall.

Building a Democratic majority in the Senate is going to require that we run candidates with a decent chance of winning in November, and that means securing seats in liberal states such as Minnesota. Al Franken looks to be the man to do it; he is indeed a serious contender for the United States Senate.