Norm Coleman
Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota. First elected as a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, Coleman became a Republican in 1996. Elected to the Senate in 2002, he was narrowly defeated in his 2008 reelection bid. To date, he is the last Republican to have represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.
Born in New York City, Coleman was elected mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota's capital and second-largest city, in 1993 as a member of the Democratic Party. A liberal Democrat in his youth, Coleman shifted to conservatism as an adult. After conflicts with the Democratic Party over his conservative views, Coleman joined the Republican Party. He was reelected mayor a year later as a Republican. While serving as mayor, he was the Republican nominee in the 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial election, but lost to former professional wrestler and third-party candidate Jesse Ventura.
Coleman challenged incumbent Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone in the 2002 United States Senate election in Minnesota. After Wellstone died in a plane crash a few weeks before the election, he was replaced on the ballot by former Vice President Walter Mondale. Coleman defeated Mondale by over two points. He sought reelection in 2008. In one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate, he lost to former comedian Al Franken by 312 votes out of over three million cast. Since his defeat, Coleman has been a lobbyist and chairs both the Republican Jewish Coalition and the conservative American Action Network. He is also the founder of the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC and works as a lobbyist for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Early life and education
Coleman was born in Brooklyn, the son of Norman Bertram Coleman Sr. and his wife, Beverly. His family is Jewish, his paternal grandfather having changed the surname from Goldman to Coleman. He was a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn and Hofstra University on Long Island.In college, Coleman was an active member of the 1960s counterculture and a liberal Democrat. "Carting a bullhorn around campus, he'd regularly lecture students about the immorality of the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War." He was elected president of the student senate during his junior year. Under Coleman, the senate refused to ratify the newspaper's editor and her co-editor and cut some funding to the newspaper. But after refusing to swear in the editor on four different occasions, the senate finally backed down. Coleman celebrated his 20th birthday at the Woodstock Festival, and later admitted to smoking marijuana in his youth. He worked as a roadie for Jethro Tull and Ten Years After, among others.
Coleman attended Brooklyn Law School from 1972 until 1974 but received his Juris Doctor from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1976.
Career
After graduating from law school, Coleman joined the office of the Minnesota Attorney General as a prosecutor, eventually rising to chief prosecutor and then solicitor general.Mayor of Saint Paul (1994–2002)
Coleman left the attorney general's office upon being elected mayor of St. Paul. One of his first acts as mayor was the elimination of underfunded retirement health benefits for city workers.One of Coleman's accomplishments as mayor was to bring professional ice hockey back to Minnesota. In 1993 the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas, Texas. On June 7, 1997, the NHL awarded St. Paul an expansion franchise, later named the Minnesota Wild, that would play in a new arena downtown at the site of Civic Center Arena. The arena, later named the Grand Casino Arena, was built through a public-private partnership, with $65 million from state taxpayers and $30 million from the city.
Coleman also successfully fought property tax increases, freezing property tax rates for the eight years he served as mayor. During his mayoralty, St. Paul's job rate grew by 7.1% and 18,000 jobs were added.
While many praised Coleman for his "pragmatic" leadership style and successes in revitalizing St. Paul, critics labeled him an "opportunist", and he was often at odds with the Democratic Party's more liberal members. In 1996 he was sometimes booed at DFL party events or excluded from them altogether.
Coleman joined the Republican Party in 1996 and was reelected mayor of St. Paul in 1997, defeating Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nominee State Senator Sandy Pappas. He is, as of 2024, the last Republican mayor of St. Paul.
1998 gubernatorial campaign
While announcing his party switch, Coleman said that he "didn't intend" to run for governor in 1998. But his role in bringing professional hockey back to Minnesota and his popularity in St. Paul did help fuel a run for governor that year. He easily won the Republican nomination, facing just token opposition in the primary. In the general election, he faced DFL nominee Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III and Reform Party nominee Jesse Ventura. Polls had Coleman and Humphrey tied for first, but Ventura won the election in an upset, with 37% of the vote to Coleman's 34.3% and Humphrey's 28.1%.U.S. Senate (2003–2009)
Coleman made plans for a second run for governor in 2002, but Karl Rove and George W. Bush persuaded him to challenge incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone in the U.S. Senate election instead. Coleman had served as Wellstone's campaign chair in 1996, shortly before his decision to switch to the Republican Party. Coleman easily won the Republican nomination.Coleman and Wellstone were neck-and-neck in most polls for most of the campaign. On October 25, Wellstone died in a plane crash. The Democrats chose former Vice President Walter Mondale to replace Wellstone on the ballot. Mondale had held the same Senate seat from 1964 to 1977. Coleman defeated Mondale by just over 61,000 votes out of over 2 million cast. He succeeded Dean Barkley, whom Ventura had appointed to serve the remaining two months of Wellstone's term.
In April 2003, Coleman told a Capitol Hill reporter that he was a "99% improvement" over Wellstone because he had a better working relationship with the White House. Many Wellstone supporters found this offensive and insulting, and at least one member of Congress urged Coleman to apologize. Coleman issued an apology, explaining that he was referring specifically to the reporter's question about the differences between his and Wellstone's relationship with the White House, and saying in part, "I would never want to diminish the legacy or memory of Senator Paul Wellstone, and I will accept full responsibility for not having been more accurate in my comments." In 2004, Coleman campaigned for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but was defeated for the post by Senator Elizabeth Dole in a 28–27 vote.
2008 reelection campaign
In 2008, Coleman's opponents for reelection were Dean Barkley and the DFL nominee, former Air America host and comedian Al Franken. On the day after the election, Coleman led in the counted votes and claimed victory in the race. Minnesota law requires an automatic recount when the margin between the leading candidates is less than 0.5% of the vote, and the margin between Coleman and Franken was about 0.01%. Barkley came in third with 15%.The initial results of the recount put Franken ahead by 225 votes out of almost 2.9 million votes cast. On December 24, 2008, Coleman's lawyers said it was a "virtual certainty" that he would contest the results of the election.
Coleman's term expired on January 3, 2009. On January 5, Franken was certified as the winner of the recount by 225 votes. Coleman filed a legal challenge of the results on January 6, and a three-judge panel was seated.
On February 3, the panel allowed Coleman to introduce evidence that as many as 4,800 absentee ballots were wrongly rejected and should be counted. The Franken campaign had tried to limit Coleman to bringing evidence on only the 650 absentee ballots cited in the initial court filing.
On April 1, the panel ordered that an additional 400 absentee ballots be examined. After examining the 400 ballots on April 6, the panel ordered that an additional 351 ballots be opened and counted. On April 7, the additional 351 ballots were opened and counted before the panel and a packed courtroom. Franken got an additional 198 votes, Coleman gained 111, and other candidates received 42, increasing Franken's lead to 312 votes.
On April 13, the three-judge panel issued its final ruling, sweeping aside all of Coleman's legal claims and declaring Franken the winner of the race by 312 votes. In its unanimous decision, the panel said, "The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the November 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately", and that Franken should be issued a Certificate of Election. The panel ruled that Coleman had failed to prove that mistakes or irregularities in the treatment of absentee ballots had changed the election's outcome.
Coleman appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on June 1. On June 30, the court unanimously ruled in Franken's favor, declaring him the winner of the election, whereupon Coleman conceded.
Deep Marine Technology and corruption allegations
While running for reelection in 2008, Coleman was mentioned in a Texas lawsuit by Paul McKim, CEO of Deep Marine Technology, against Nasser Kazeminy. Kazeminy was a longtime Coleman supporter who owned a controlling share of DMT. The petition alleged that Kazeminy had used DMT to funnel $75,000 or more to Laurie Coleman through her employer, Hays Companies, in order to enrich Senator Coleman. McKim's petition covered several issues, of which the Coleman matter was only one. Coleman's 2009 Senate financial disclosure form disclosed that Laurie Coleman received a salary from Hays Companies, but Senate rules do not require the salary amount to be revealed. Neither Coleman nor his wife was named as a defendant in the suit. On October 31, minority shareholders in DMT filed a related suit in Delaware Chancery Court. The Delaware suit also alleged that Kazeminy had used DMT to funnel unearned funds to Laurie Coleman through Hays Companies. As in the Texas case, the Colemans were not named as defendants.Coleman was not charged with any crime regarding allegations of corruption in receiving gifts of $100,000 from Kazeminy. Doug Grow, a MinnPost columnist, expressed skepticism about Coleman's attorneys' claim that the lack of charges meant that Coleman and Kazeminy were not guilty of any wrongdoing. Coleman responded with a campaign ad in which he denied the allegations and blamed them on Franken.
In June 2011, the U.S. Justice Department decided not to file charges against Coleman or Kazeminy. Louis Freeh, an attorney for Kazeminy and a former FBI Director in the Clinton Administration, said he learned the Justice Department had ended the investigation in a February 24 meeting with Andrew Levchuk of the department's Public Integrity Section in Washington.
Kazeminy hired Freeh to conduct an independent investigation of all charges. He concluded that there was no wrongdoing or impropriety by the Colemans or Kazeminy. Freeh said that both his investigation and a separate Deep Marine board investigation concluded McKim had made false claims in an attempt to force a larger severance package out of Deep Marine. The Intercept, questioning Freeh's impartiality, reported that nine days after Freeh's investigation cleared Kazeminy of wrongdoing, Kazeminy gave Freeh's wife a one-half ownership stake in a Palm Beach property valued at $3 million. McKim's allegations were repeated hundreds of times in local and national media reports during the waning days of the 2008 election in what Coleman called "multi-million-dollar attacks against my family and Nasser Kazeminy".
Freeh says McKim later prepared an affidavit that would have recanted his allegations against the Colemans and Kazeminy in exchange for a financial settlement. He concluded that McKim had a clear motive to use false allegations as leverage to enrich himself. McKim still questioned the legitimacy of insurance payments and said he had done nothing wrong, but another of Kazeminy's attorneys said his client had not ruled out future litigation against McKim.
A columnist at The Weekly Standard wrote, "it is possible that the allegations against Coleman may have handed victory to Al Franken."