Catching up on politics with a Minnesota Jewish angle, former Sen. Norm Coleman is mulling a challenge to Michael Steele for the Republican National Committee chairmanship. Apparently, Politico broke the story last week.
Norm Coleman (Photo: Mordecai Specktor)
Coleman will be attending the RNC’s summer meeting next month in Kansas City, but “senior Republicans say the former senator’s appearance at the committee’s gathering will also allow him to meet the party members who will pick the next chairman and signal to them that he’s interested in the job,” according to Politico, which added, “In the last month, Coleman has had private conversations with multiple high-level GOP officials about the party’s chairmanship in an attempt to sound out his prospects.”
Here’s more from the story:
“My focus is on the 2010 elections,” Coleman wrote in response to questions about his interest in the RNC post. “We have a huge opportunity to stop the Democrats’ out-of-control spending and losing the opportunity would be devastating for the country.”
A close confidante, however, said Coleman is “intrigued by the [RNC] opportunity.”
“He’s got a strong and growing interest in at least talking to people about if this makes sense for him to do,” said the confidante, who nonetheless emphasized that Coleman is thinking chiefly about this November’s elections.
Coleman was elected to the Senate from Minnesota in 2002, defeating former Vice President Walter Mondale, who entered the race just days before the election, after the incumbent, Sen. Paul Wellstone, died in a plane crash on Oct. 25. In the 2008 Senate contest, Al Franken, the DFL candidate, beat Coleman by a margin of 225 votes, out of 2.5 million votes cast, following a lengthy recount and court challenge.
In 2009, Coleman took a job with the Republican Jewish Coalition as a consultant and strategic adviser. — Mordecai Specktor
