Attorney Mike Ciresi held events in St. Paul and Duluth on Wednesday to make the anti-climactic announcement that he will run against comedian Al Franken for the Democratic Senate nomination next year.

Both men had telegraphed for months that they wanted the opportunity to unseat Sen. Norm Coleman (R).

As when Franken made his decision official, the Minnesota Republican Party greeted Ciresi with a four-page “fact sheet” deriding him for not running for Senate last year and for being a nationally ranked top-earning lawyer, among other things.

National Democrats see Coleman as a top target but have yet to make clear who they think has the best chance of beating the former St. Paul mayor.

— Nicole Duran