Looks like we won't have Norm Coleman to kick around any more (at least not this year):
"This is not the right time for me and my family to conduct a campaign for Governor," he said in a Facebook post. "The timing on this race is both a bit too soon and a bit too late."
It was too late for him to organize his troops for what is expected to be a heavily contested GOP endorsement battle. That battle will start on Feb. 2 with precinct caucuses.
Considering that Coleman hadn't made any moves and had seemed focused on his think-tanking work in DC, this can't be considered that surprising. The article also suggests that he'd been the subject of a lot of pressure not to run from insiders, worried that Coleman would pursue a strategy based on running in the primary, rather than grabbing the party's endorsement at convention, which would shatter whatever party unity exists right now.
With Coleman having by far the greatest name rec of any state Republican, and with Rasmussen polls of the primary showing him polling over 50% in the primary, that's probably how things would have played out. (Also worth noting -- a poll last week for the St. Paul newspaper showed Coleman losing the general to both ex-Sen. Mark Dayton and state House speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, so that may have helped along his decision.) At this point, the Republican nomination is thoroughly up for grabs, although former state House minority leader Marty Seifert seems to have a bit of an edge, visible more in terms of party straw polls and behind-the-scenes backing than actual public polling.
