No Vikings game today, but there may be an opportunity to get your weekly fix of excitement — with plenty of bone-crunching hits, maybe a couple of double-reverses and the prospect of points being scored left and right.

OK, maybe that doesn’t sound much like the Vikings, but the substitute has the potential to provide all of that. It’s the first debate between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, who have been pounding each other with television ads that will likely prompt accusations of unsportsmanlike conduct when they face off 7 p.m. today.

The first of five debates, the event won’t be on TV, but Minnesota Public Radio is broadcasting it (91.5 FM in the Mankato area).

After the rash of negative advertising, voters might also be interested in hearing more from the John David Booty of the Senate race. That would be Independence Party Candidate Dean Barkley, who is also going to be on hand for the debate at the University Center in Rochester.

Folks who miss the live broadcast can hear a not-so-instant replay at noon Monday on MPR.

Debates next week
More convenient for Mankato-area residents will be a 7 p.m. debate on Oct. 13 between Congressman Tim Walz, DFL-Mankato, and Dr. Brian Davis, R-Rochester, at Ostrander Auditorium at Minnesota State University. The debate, sponsored by the nonpartisan Debate Minnesota, is free and open to the public.

People in Le Sueur County and other parts of the 2nd Congressional District will be able to see their candidates on Oct. 17. Republican Congressman John Kline and Democratic challenger Steve Sarvi will be on Twin Cities Public Television’s Almanac show at 7 p.m.

Seeking rural votes
Franken accepted the endorsement of the Minnesota Farmers Union’s political arm last week.

No surprise there because the group leans heavily toward Democrats, just as the Farm Bureau, the other major farm group, more often endorses Republicans and favors Coleman in the 2008 race.

Some Republicans, including state House Minority Leader Marty Siefert, have predicted Franken will get trounced in the more conservative rural parts of the state. So the Farmers Union endorsement was used to tout Franken’s farm policies and his interest in rural Minnesota.

Officials from the organization joined Franken in a conference call with reporters and suggested rural voters take a look at the candidates’ positions on health care, fairer trade deals with foreign countries and more aggressive use of antitrust rules against large corporations that dominate some agricultural commodities.

Franken has long made renewable energy investments a centerpiece of his campaign and said it would bring widespread economic growth to rural Minnesota.

Other than a brief time as a child in southern Minnesota, Franken — like Coleman — has been exclusively an urban-dweller. But Franken said his campaign to win the DFL endorsement resulted in extended conversations with party activists from rural Minnesota.

“They got to take a measure of me as a man and of my family, and I’m proud to say that’s where I did best in the endorsement process,” Franken said.

Coleman’s campaign responded with a list of his accomplishments as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, including his work on the 2007 farm bill. Coleman has also supported renewable fuels legislation, safety-net provisions for crop farmers and improvements to rural hospitals and infrastructure.