399px-tpawlentyGov. Tim Pawlenty politely rebuffed Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine’s plea to intervene in the U.S. Senate contest by pressuring Norm Coleman to concede. In a letter to the Virginia governor, Pawlenty argued that it’s too early to declare a winner in the contest.

“As a fellow Governor and attorney, I am sure you can appreciate that such commitment would be premature,” Pawlenty wrote, according to Politico. “The Minnesota Supreme Court might remand the case to the three-judge panel and ask them to consider carious issues that were raised in the election contest.”

Kaine started the pen-pal relationship by calling on Pawlenty to use his powers of persuasion to convince Coleman to step aside. It’s part of an ongoing campaign by Democrats and their allies to build pressure on Pawlenty in anticipation of a ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court. If the state’s top court ratifies the findings of a three-judge panel, which determined that Al Franken won the senate race by 312 votes, then Pawlenty will be forced to decide whether to sign an election certificate.