This is not a rumor. Former Sen. Coleman stated (on his facebook page) that he’s done thinking about it and will not seek the 2010 Repub nomination for guv.
I’ll post the full text of Coleman’s brief but definite I’m-not-running statement below. But first, I will confess that the news comes as a surprise. Six months ago, I convinced myself, with help from several Republicans with inside knowledge, that Coleman was unlikely to run. But since then, it has felt like a steady drift toward running. The news will have a big impact on the race. I believed that Coleman, if he could get the nomination, would be the strongest Repub candidate for guv. (I personally thought winning the nomination would be a bigger challenge for Coleman.)
For months, likewise, a standard starting point for analysis of the race has been this: The DFL nominee is already a candidate. The Republican nominee is not yet in the race. Then Jim Ramstad took himself out of the running (twice). Then Brian Sullivan (whom I thought would have won the endorsement if he got in.) Now Coleman. (Not to mention that Pat Anderson, who was considered one of the top-tier candidates for the Repub nomination just last week dropped out on the grounds that Coleman would be getting in). So it begins to look as if the Repubs will really choose their endorsee and nominee from between state Reps. Marty Seifert and Tom Emmer.
But enough instant analysis. Here’s the statement Coleman posted at 10:38 Sunday night:
“I love Minnesota and I love public service, but this is not the right time for me and my family to conduct a campaign for Governor.
Timing is everything. The timing on this race is both a bit too soon and a bit too late. It is too soon after my last race and too late to do a proper job of seeking the support of delegates who will decide in which direction our party should go. The commitments I have to my family and the work I am currently engaged in do not allow me to now go forward.
At the moment, I am tremendously energized by the work I am currently involved in to create a positive, center right agenda for this country. Anger on the left and anger on the right will get us nowhere. In Minnesota, we face a jobs deficit, a budget deficit and a bipartisanship deficit. We must all put aside the bitterness and sniping and remember that behind every job loss and every home foreclosure is a Minnesota family losing hope and confidence.
I think I can be part of recreating a more civil and respectful politics, a politics that better expresses the will of the vast majority of people. I will continue my efforts to work with Republicans, Independents and moderate, common sense Democrats across the country to advance the values of fiscal responsibility, entrepreneurship, effective government change, national security and respect for life. That’s where America is philosophically and we need well-thought-out policies that express it.
My thanks to the many folks who encouraged me to run, but I’ve learned there are lots of ways to serve without an official position. Dr. King said everyone can be great because everyone can serve. We all need to seek out how our service can do the most good, and at this moment in my life, I’ve found mine.
Thanks. God bless you.”
Coleman, by the way, is actively involved in creating a think tank/advocacy group, which he very likely will run.
What think?
For many I believe his candidacy would have been more about a chance to stick former Senator Coleman under liberals noses again rather than liking his policies. Payback for the re-count…
Personally, I still think TP will be back. He has not yet plumbed the true depths of the realities of his presidential run. When he sees the hard cold facts, he’ll decide, (oh so gracefully), that he needs to keep his governorship. After all, how else can he stay in the national public eye until 2016?
Interesting maybe I gotta check out this new social media facebook et all. What’s this with Pawlenty in 2016? Give me some simple facts on his fund raising.
Makes me wonder who else Ron Eibensteiner might have been speaking for.
This reiterates how much I hate this man and the media coverage for which he is so undeserving. He has lost statewide elections to everything but a cross-dressing circus clown not to mention he sent his ideologies packing to get elected at least once. I hope this new think tank will afford him the resources to do two things take some speech classes to lose the east coast accent and downsize this teeth from chicklets to tic tacs.
Too bad. I think that there is a lot of good will left in Minnesota for former Senator Coleman. I imagine that he will take this opportunity to work in the private sector and take a long view of his future. I hope that it was the right choice for him and his family. It would have been a great race though if he had chosen otherwise.
Finally some rationality.
He realizes that the GOP is being hijacked by the radical right, and that a moderate like him has little chance of being nominated AND getting the kind of support necessary to win a close election (can you say NY District 23?).
TP is out for gov — he said so, and he has yet to say one thing and do another, much to the discomfiture of his enemies.
As for Norm, it seem to me this is the smart move.
It’s nice to read a gracious and centrist statement by a Republican. It’s good that there are Republicans still around who speak that way too.
What a contrast – if you’re running for something as a Republican, there seems to be no limit to the over-the-top, anti-Obama, anti-government, anti-Democratic rhetoric that is dumped into the public conversation. Even from the likes of Mr. Pawlenty, who was a pretty civil and gracious conservative guy until he started running for the top job. Hard to stay with reasonable rhetoric when you have to out-crazy Bachmann and Palin to get any national news coverage