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No, Norm Coleman Isn’t Coming Back « The Washington Independent

Jul 31, 20201.4K Shares209.6K Views
Politico teases out whether former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) will abandon his legal campaignto aid Republican filibusters and run for governor in 2010.
“This race is wide open,” said Sarah Janacek, a Republican activist in the state and editor of a on state politics. “Coleman’s experience, contacts and donor base should not be discounted in the governor’s race. I have talked to people who are Norm’s supporters who think that he should run for governor.”
Indeed, some of Coleman’s supporters still support him. But the uncomfortable truth (which the Politico sort of teases out) is that Minnesotans simply don’t like the guy. In April, the Star-Tribune pollput Coleman’s favorable rating at only 38 percent, to 55 percent unfavorable, a serious fall-off since the election, when Coleman won 42 percent of the vote in a three-way race. And Coleman is still miredin a donor scandal that broke before the election. If you rephrase this—”Should a candidate with a 17-point net negative popularity rating and a pending lawsuit run for governor?”—it sounds like lunacy, but Coleman has benefited from curiously anodyne or “what a circus!” coverage throughout this process.
It’s quite strange. Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) didn’t win any elections in 2008, either, and he’s submerged in money scandals, too. But no one floats the idea of Burris running for another office ever again. That would be crazy.
Hajra Shannon

Hajra Shannon

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