Not so long ago, one Norman Bertram Coleman was, well, kind of a big deal. You may remember him:
- From 1994-2002, he was a GOP mayor of Minnesota’s second largest city, a DFL stronghold.
- He was the GOP nominee for Minnesota Governor in 1998.
- He was MInnesota’s United States Senator from 2003-2009.
- He came up in national veepstakes conversations.
- He had perhaps the best name recognition of any Minnesota Republican.
- He was one of the most talented Minnesota pols of his generation.
- He was arguably the best political fundraiser in the state.
- He was the only reasonably prominent Republican who was thinking about running against current DFL Governor Mark Dayton.
But yesterday, when Senator Coleman announced to his followers via Twitter that he has decided not to run for Governor in 2014, his political obituary got the political equivalent of crickets in the Star Tribune — three column inches on the very back page of the Local section, imbedded in the weather coverage.
This news media dissing is partially a function of how light and casual political coverage has gotten in the Star Tribune, and partially a function of Mr. Coleman’s devalued political stock. The relative silence of the Minnesota news media was deafening.
– Loveland
Note: This post was also featured in Politics in Minnesota’s Best of the Blogs.
Correction: I incorrectly referred to Mr. Coleman as a Republican when he was mayor of St. Paul, but a reader/participant correctly notes that Coleman was a DFLer for part of his mayoral service (1993-1996), and a Republican for the remainder of his service (1999-2001).
But what has Norm done lately to deserve coverage? Does he even live in the state anymore? Are any members of his family here? What has that foundation thingy he is supposedly running been doing?
He has largely gone off the radar, presumably by his own choice. And this is a decision to stay off.
One resume item that is missing :
“Minnesota’s Mayor in Washington”
That was Mr. Coleman’s theme in his unsuccessful US Senate re-election promoting the concept that he was representing your interests in the hallowed halls of Congress
…. now he’s just
“in Washington”
representing those that pay for his influence …
Quite a contrast between Minnesota’s perceived influential statesmen … on one hand, we have former Senators Mondale and Durenburger who seem to be still involved in adding their voices to policy issues … versus Mr. Coleman and former Governor Tim Pawlenty who ramble the boardrooms looking for cash so that their voices can be heard as policies are developed.
Good contrast, although Mondale is different–also a former VP and US Ambassador, he has a much nicer retirement package, and is older, so the financial need is less.
Durenberger, however, has none of those. While he is not exactly donating his time to habitat for humanity, his continued work on health care issues is impressive and substantive. Too bad there are not more politicians in the mold of Durenberger and Arne Carlson.
The news media may be yawning about Norm’s announcement, but I can guarantee Team Franken and Team Dayton are not.
As much baggage as Norm has at this stage of his career, he does have a lot of political assets for a statewide run — a conservative base, a center-right image, almost universal name recognition, and the ability to quickly raise boatloads of cash in an off-year election when DFLers traditionally don’t turn out strongly.
Make no mistake, Franken and Dayton dodged a bullet. This could end up being, very quietly, the most impactful development of Minnesota’s 2014 election cycle.
Technically Norm was not a Repuboican Maor from 1994 to 2002. Norm was elected as a DFLer in 1994; and while in 1993 he did not seek the DFL endorsement, I believe he did not actually seek the Republican endorsement. I think he officially switched party afiliation during over just after the election,
Good point. I know that, because I worked in the Attorney General’s office with Norm when he was still a DFLer, and for an opponent of his when he was a DFL mayoral candidate. Sloppy writing on my part. Pursuant to this comment, I added a correction at the conclusion of the post.