Rare election year in Minnesota: No Pawlenty, Coleman on ballot

Norm Coleman’s decision to sit out this year’s race for governor makes 2010 unusual among recent years in Minnesota GOP electoral politics. For only the second time since 1990, a state election year will pass without Norm Coleman or Tim Pawlenty on the ballot.

Pawlenty announced last summer he wouldn’t seek a third term as governor last summer.

Coleman or Pawlenty has been the Republican candidate on five of the last seven occasions that U.S. Senate or governor seats were up for election in Minnesota.

Pawlenty began five terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives with an election win in 1992. He won election as governor in 2002 and again in 2006.

After winning election twice (the first time as a Democrat) to the office of mayor of St. Paul, Coleman ran for governor in 1998 and senator in 2002 and 2008.

The pair’s political fortunes got tangled in 2002 when the Bush White House prevailed on Pawlenty to move to the governor’s race so Coleman could run for Senate.

Neither man has ruled out future runs for elective office.