Comedian Al Franken took a step closer to becoming the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's 2008 Senate nominee when wealthy attorney and 2000 Senate candidate Mike Ciresi dropped his candidacy Monday, The Hill's Aaron Blake reports. Ciresi, who had invested about $2.5 million into the race, was facing a third-place finish at the June 6-8 nominating convention.

Ciresi finished second in the 2000 race to one-term Senator Mark Dayton, though he had hit Franken for being unelectable. Franken now faces professor and liberal activist Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, whose organization had outpaced Ciresi's in recent weeks.

Despite charges that he may not be electable, Franken has been the only candidate to both outraise and out-poll incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. A late-January poll by the Humphrey Institute showed Franken leading Coleman by a narrow three-point margin. Franken has pulled in more money than Coleman over several quarters, though Coleman maintains a cash-on-hand lead.