Al Franken is continuing to make it a close race for Senate in Minnesota, with a new Rasmussen poll giving incumbent Republican Norm Coleman a narrow 48%-45% edge, within the ±4.5% margin of error.

One potential wild card is whether former Gov. Jesse Ventura enters the race, which would hurt Franken -- a three-way match would give Coleman 39%, Franken 32%, and Ventura 24%.

Franken has been hurt recently by controversies surrounding his personal finances and sexually-explicit comedy routines he'd written, but has in his favor the fact that he's running in a good year for Democrats, and in a state that is likely to go for Barack Obama by a wide margin.