Franken looks to join entertainers moving from showbiz to politics

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The Associated Press

U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken discusses his education policies in downtown Fergus Falls, Minn.

WASHINGTON - Moving from celebrity to senator isn't exactly an untravelled path. But that doesn't mean comedian Al Franken, who is vying for a Senate seat in Minnesota, will coast to Capitol Hill on a wide, smooth road.

Franken, a Democrat, best-selling author and former "Saturday Night Live" cast member, once penned a racy piece for Playboy that has offended the Midwestern sensibilities of some Minnesotans. It is that history as a satirist and comedian, Franken says, that puts him "in a little uncharted territory" as he tries to woo voters.

At his nomination speech a few weeks ago, Franken acknowledged that some of his past writings and comments were "downright offensive."

"There were some things that I said that gave some people reason to believe I wouldn't fight for all Minnesotans, specifically for women," Franken said in a telephone interview. "I said I was sorry for that, 'cause that's not who I am."

If he can overcome his past, colourful commentary, Franken would join a long list of entertainers who have found a second or third career in elected office, most notably former President Reagan. They include:

* Helen Gahagan Douglas, a 1930s actress and opera singer who was a Democratic congresswoman before losing the 1950 California Senate race to Richard Nixon in a landslide. In that race, the future president called her "pink right down to her underwear" and earned the nickname "Tricky Dick."

* Tough-guy actor and director Clint Eastwood, who became mayor of Carmel, Calif.

* Fred Grandy, Gopher on the TV show "The Love Boat," who became a Republican congressman from Iowa.

* Sonny Bono, of "Sonny and Cher" fame, a Republican who became mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., and then a California congressman.

* Ben Jones, who played the mechanic Cooter on the TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard" before winning a congressional seat from Georgia as a Democrat.

* Jesse Ventura, a pro wrestler and actor who served one term as governor of Minnesota.

* Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Republican governor of California.

* Song-and-dance actor George Murphy, a Republican senator from California in the 1960s.

* Fred Thompson, a congressional staffer who became an actor and a Republican senator from Tennessee and presidential candidate.

Not all entertainers have been able to make the switch. In 1967, former child actress Shirley Temple Black, a California Republican, stressed to voters, "Little Shirley Temple is not running," but lost the congressional election anyway. She went on to serve as U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.

Entertainment is good preparation for politics, said John Hall, a New York Democrat and congressman who was frontman for the band Orleans (big hit "Still the One").

"The advantage to being a performer is that I've always been the product -- I'm used to getting up in front of people and selling myself and my ideas," he said.