Al Franken backs Mark Sidran
By The Associated Press
Comedian and political commentator Al Franken has weighed in on Washington state's Democratic primary for attorney general, saying candidate Mark Sidran has the ability to win in November "or whenever the Department of Homeland Security allows us to vote."
Franken issued the endorsement letter after being approached by the Sidran campaign, Sidran spokesman Keenan Block said.

"I have known Mark since I was accidentally admitted to Harvard in the late 1960s," Franken wrote. "Mark, who got in on merit and merit alone, was a classmate of mine, and has made something of himself."

The two did know of each other at Harvard but weren't close friends, Block said. The letter lauded Sidran for setting up domestic-violence and environmental-law divisions in the Seattle City Attorney's Office, which Sidran formerly headed.

"This is a serious race, and Sidran's making a mockery and a joke out of it," said Karen Besserman, spokeswoman for former Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn, Sidran's primary opponent.