By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff

Senate Democratic leaders said Thursday that they see a light at the end of the tunnel in the protracted Minnesota Senate race and expressed confidence that Democrat Al Franken would fill the vacant seat in a matter of weeks.

“The projections — and they’re not locked in — are that this should all be finished by the very beginning of April,” said New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer , who headed the Senate Democrats’ campaign efforts during the 2008 cycle.

A three-judge panel in Minnesota is currently refereeing Republican Norm Coleman’s attempt to have enough ballots counted in his favor to erase a 225-vote margin of victory that a state canvassing board awarded to Franken in January. But Coleman has suffered a series of setbacks in the trial.

“We’re very confident,” Schumer said. “We keep gaining.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid , who has repeatedly declared Franken the winner but has stopped short of trying to seat him as Coleman has continued his legal appeals, said Coleman should concede.

“There’s going to come a time when Coleman’s going to have to recognize that he’s lost — he’s lost this election,” Reid said. “This should have been over a long time ago.”

Reid urged Coleman to “have a five-minute conversation” with Nevada GOP Sen. John Ensign , noting that in 1998 Ensign conceded a close race to Reid that was decided by less than 500 votes. Unlike Coleman, Ensign, who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee in the 2008 cycle, did not throw the close race into the state court system.

Coleman, now a consultant and strategic adviser for the Republican Jewish Coalition, attended the Senate GOP’s weekly policy lunch this week and expressed confidence that he would be deemed the winner. But Schumer said the former one-term senator was “getting a little bit desperate.”

“The people of Minnesota are very fair people, and they’ll grant him appeals,” Schumer said. “But sooner or later this is going to come to an end.”

Ensign said Coleman’s challenges are “the right thing to do.”

“I stand firmly behind Norm Coleman and his efforts to ensure a fair election and I look forward to having him back in the Senate when the election contest is completed,” Ensign said.