Republican nominee Mike McFadden criticized Sen. Al Franken Sunday for not clearly supporting a ban on travel to Minnesota from countries affected by Ebola, trying to leverage growing public concern over the virus into a political advantage.
During the second debate in the Minnesota Senate race, McFadden pounced when moderators pressed Franken on his stance toward a travel ban.
“I just listened to both of you ask Al Franken three times what his answer was, and he didn’t answer it,” said McFadden.
“That is the problem with politics right now. People want straight talk,” McFadden argued. “The reason I think people are so concerned about Ebola is they’ve seen a theme in Washington and with our political leadership — that there’s been no leadership on these issues, whether it be the response to [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria], whether it be this economy, now with Ebola.
“People are feeling less secure and less safe,” he concluded.
Franken, the incumbent first-term member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, had avoided directly taking a position on a travel ban earlier in the debate in Minneapolis, but later on clarified that he did not necessarily oppose the idea.
“I have nothing against a travel ban from West Africa, what I’m saying is, it’s insufficient,” he said. Franken had noted that the vast majority of travelers from West Africa to Minnesota do not come directly through Minnesota airports, and highlighted the need to prepare state hospitals to deal with Ebola patients.
McFadden had called a travel ban “common sense” to start the debate, claiming that there were only four hospitals in the U.S. with state-of-the-art resources for treating Ebola patients, each capable of holding only 3-10 people.
“If we have an outbreak, we’re not ready to address it,” he stated.
Sunday’s meeting was the second showdown between the two candidates, and was marked by confrontation and Franken’s efforts to portray the former investment banker McFadden as an uncaring businessman. They have one more debate scheduled for Nov. 2.
Franken has consistently held a double-digit lead over McFadden in the race, which has not attracted the outside attention that other midterm Senate elections have.
The most recent Star Tribune poll, however, showed McFadden down just 9 percentage points among likely voters. The poll surveyed 800 likely voters between Oct. 20-22, and showed a four-percentage-point improvement for McFadden.
