“The decision was made a long time ago not to run, regardless of how the governor’s race goes and before Governor Tim Pawlenty announced he was not seeking re-election,” Seifert said. He held a press conference in Marshall Thursday morning and has another one scheduled for St. Paul this afternoon.

Another leader at the Legislature, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, told the Star Tribune on Monday that she won’t be seeking reelection either. Kelliher is running for the DFL nomination for governor. She won’t step down as House Speaker, but she says she “won’t be the speaker in 2011.”

The Minnesota Progressive Project caught that scoop back in November.

In an email to supporters this afternoon, the six-term Minneapolis legislator positioned herself as a consensus-builder, alluding to her role in improving the state’s infrastructure after the I-35W collapse and in passing “Minnesota’s nation-leading renewable energy standard.”

This filing is her candidacy’s “first step,” as her email subject line states — the next one is raising funds and staffing up — but she says she’ll wait a few weeks to “formally announce” that she’s in.

Koering announced in June that he was putting together an exploratory committee to determine if he had the support to launch a campaign.

But he deemed a run not feasible, gauging that, after Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s unallotment dismantled the political contribution refund program, fundraising would be “extremely difficult.”

On the issue of GOP activists not willing to back a gay candidate, Koering said, “I didn’t really want to say that. [But] that’s a hurdle some delegates can’t get over.”

Koering also said his views are sometimes not conservative enough to placate the party base. He’s gotten a bad rap from the Taxpayers League, and he’s come out in favor of some progressive causes, medical marijuana, for example.

Today it’s a post at Politico that speculates on whether Coleman could make the jump from confirmed ex-senator to governor. Unnamed insiders say he’s really, really not thinking about being governor. Named outsiders say it’s a moot point: Coleman’s done with elective office whether he wants to be or not.

Coleman sought the governorship in 1998 (and lost to Jesse Ventura) — and would have sought it again in 2002 if the White House hadn’t ordered him to swap races with Pawlenty. (That turned out to be a good move as both Republicans won in three-way contests.)

The problem — as David Weigel writes at the Minnesota Independent’s sister site, The Washington Independent — is that polls show “Minnesotans simply don’t like the guy.”

Weigel makes an instructive contrast between Coleman and Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.). Burris is also unelected in 2008, also beset with scandal, and yet no one’s floating him for another office — because, Weigel writes, “that would be crazy.”

Elmer L. Andersen (ca. 1965), by Edward Vincent Brewer. MHS

Gov. Elmer L. Andersen’s full statement of Saturday, March 23, 1963, as printed in the Minneapolis Tribune the following day:

After the most careful consideration I have decided not to appeal the ruling of the district judge panel. There is no justification for appeal simply because the Supreme Court has already made its position clear on certain categories of irregular ballots and there is no way to judge the remainder so as to reverse the result of the lower court. 

This is the  anlysis of my counsel, Messers. Kyle and Morton, and Recount Director Tom Swain, all of whom have done a perfectly magnificent job in my behalf. 

To the very many people who have urged me in the most strenuous terms to appeal to the Supreme Court, I may say with equal emphasis, that were there the slightest basis for expecting a reveral of judgment, I most certainly [would] appeal. 

On the other hand, when a competent and fair tribunal, which the district judge panel most certainly has been, renders a judgment that skilled representatives of mine feel cannot be successfully challenged in a higher court, then no one could expect me to appeal in order to gain time or keep possession of this office until the last possible moment. 

When the canvassing board declared me the winner and the contest started, my supervisors and I were confident the final result would be victory for me by an increased margin. 

I decided to carry on all the duties and responsibilities of governor as best I could, under the circumstances, and this I have done. 

As a result, legislative and administrative programs have moved ahead in a positive way. 

To those who wonder why the recount changed the original result, I would point out that there is about the same percentage of irregular ballots among Republican voters as DFL. I had 15,000 more paper ballot votes than my opponent, thus the opposition had 15,000 more chances to find irregular ballots than our people did. I am confident my recounters found every vote there was to be found. 

Actually no one can know for sure who had the most voters’ support last Nov. 6th as more tha 1,300 ballots were thrown out, and the established margin of victory is only 91. 

To those who suggest that this then could only be resolved by a run-off election, the answer is that there is no provision in our constitution or statutory law for such a solution. This is a matter for legislative consideration to apply to future elections. 

To those who wonder why it has taken so long to decide this election, may I say it is only because it is so close. Out of this experience every citizen can gain a heightened appreciation of each vote and awareness for the need of casting it properly, and suggestions for improving election lawss and procedures. 

I will not attempt at this time to reveiw and assess all the accomplishements of my administration, but I know there has been solid achievement in the fields of human rights, goverment services, jobs and economic growth (particularly for northeastern Minnesota), traffic safety, improvement in the state’s finances, natural resource development and future planning. 

It is particularly gratifying to have won for the people a right to vote on a taconite amendment for which I fought so long, and at times, almost alone. 

To me it has been a fruitful and rewarding two and one quarter years. I am thankful to state employees, department heads, legislators, study group members and all others who have contributed time, thought and energy to provide such substantial gain in so many areas, in so short a time. 

May I say a special word of thanks to all members of the news media, with whom I have always enjoyed working, for their diligence in presenting news of Minnesota state government. 

Monday I will file a waiver of waiting period with the Ramsey County District Court which will permit a certificate of election to be issued to Mr. Rolvaag. 

My staff will be here Monday morning until Mr. Rolvaag has qualified and his people arrive. I have written Mr. Rolvaag my beset wishes and placed my executive secretary, Mr. Milton Knoll, in communication with Mr. William Shovell, so there can be an orderly transition. 

As to my own future plans, I will be consulting with my loyal and devoted staff on their relocation. It will not be my plan to return to the active management of H.B. Fuller Co., although I will return to my office there and assume a position to be determined. My main activity will continue to be in the field of community and public  service as it has been for some years. 

I would particularly like to puruse the long-range New Dimension Natural Resource program which we have launched. 

Today ends one chapter, admittedly a shorter chapter than I had intended, but there are more to be written. I am disappointed but not the least discouraged: I am defeated but not the least disheartened. I am deeply grateful to the people of Minnesota for the privilege that has been mine to serve as governor of this great state which means so much to me, and to the thousands of unselfish workers for better government who have given me their support. 

Our son, Tony, and his wife, Alice, are home from New York for this weekend, as is my college son, Julian. With Emily and my wife, Eleanor, who has given so much to me, our family is united. 

Our love has deepened and broadened through this experience. We are thankful we have retained good health, and we continue to be humbly grateful for the rich blessings of God that we have so abundantly received.

In November, 58 percent of Minnesotans polled told SurveyUSA they approved of Pawlenty’s performance. That fell to 54 percent in December, to 53 percent in January, and in the most recent results from late February, to 48 percent. (See Survey USA’s table here.) At that rate, a smaller proportion of Minnesota voters will approve of Pawlenty this month than voted for him in 2006 (46.7 percent). And by the time SurveyUSA conducts its poll in April, the governor’s approval will fall below even the 44.4 percent he won by in 2002.

Smart Politics observes that Pawlenty’s February showing is still fifth-best among the 14 governors they research (h/t Polinaut). KSTP-TV, which pays for the polls, reported that Pawlenty found the January results encouraging for his re-election in 2010. Going on radio and TV might help — or he could try taking action that voters see as being in the best interest of the state. If he does that, his approval rating by the end of the current legislative session might not tank below his 2002 showing at the polls.

“After receiving strong encouragement from health care reformers and others, Senator John Marty is launching an exploratory campaign for Governor,” reads a message on the website www.johnmarty.org. “The campaign being announced through email and other contacts to thousands of health reform advocates and other Minnesotans.”

Marty is best known in recent years for his push for health care reform, specifically a single-payer system, and a commitment to marriage equality and environmentalism. He has been a staunch opponent of public financing for sports stadiums and a proponent of campaign finance reform.

On rumors of a campaign for governor, “We were never going to do it,” he said.

His name will drop from the long list of politicians positioning themselves for the governor’s seat.

Clockwise from upper left: Quinn, Blagojevich, Andersen, Rolvaag (MHS)

Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn is calling for the resignation of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a man with whom he shared a ticket but apparently little else (except antipathy). Despite making overtures and even having once defended his embattled boss’s integrity, Quinn says he hasn’t spoken to Blagojevich since Aug. 2, 2007.

That’s a contrast with Minnesota, where Gov. Tim Pawlenty stood by Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau and pleaded her case until the state Senate canned her from her moonlighting stint as state transportation commissioner in the wake of the I-35W bridge collapse — which by coincidence occurred the day before Quinn’s last talk with Blagojevich.

So things are different in Illinois and Minnesota, at least in that respect. But the distant relationship between Blagojevich and his second-in-command does have at least one parallel in Minnesota, from the time of the last great statewide election recount in 1962.

The rivals in the race for governor that year were the sitting governor, Republican Elmer L. Andersen, and the sitting lieutenant governor, DFLer Karl Rolvaag. (Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor in those days did not run together on a ticket, so the office-holders weren’t necessarily of the same party.) After each won election to two-year terms in 1960, their 1962 clash was inevitable, according to the 1964 book “Recount” by Ronald F. Stinnett and Charles H. Backstrom.

Rolvaag, who had already served three terms as lieutenant governor, and Andersen, a 10-year state Senate veteran, “had personalities and philosophies so different that they could only resolve into opposition for the governorship in 1962,” Stinnett and Backstrom wrote, adding:

Karl Rolvaag stated several times just prior to his ascension from the “broom closet” to the plush parlors of the Governor’s suite that he had been in the Governor’s office only twice during Andersen’s term.

(The “broom closet” was a small office to which Rolvaag decamped toward the end of the 139-day recount, to make way for A.M. “Sandy” Keith, a fellow DFLer whose separate election in 1962 to the office of lieutenant governor was undisputed.)

By the end of the recount, which gave Rolvaag a 91-vote victory over Andersen, the two men exhibited a civility toward one another not seen between Blagojevich and Quinn — or between current recount rivals Al Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman for that matter. Still, during the two years they spent working — in theory — together, the relationship was an arm’s-length one on par with the current occupants of Illinois’ Statehouse.

Andersen left Rolvaag alone to do the one duty of a lieutenant governor: oversee the state Senate, which then met only 90 days per year. He might have more profitably given Rolvaag something else to do, even running the state transportation department. Instead Rolvaag enjoyed plenty of spare time in which to plot his campaign to topple Andersen.

The Rolvaag-Andersen contest is one such rivalry that NPR’s Political Junkie blog cites in a useful overview of the governor-lieutenant governor relationship in America, inspired by Quinn’s comments Thursday. Today in 18 states, voters elect candidates to those offices separately. Among the other states, Illinois is one of seven in which candidates are nominated individually (running separately in party primaries in Illinois), only to unite on a single ticket for the general election.

That allows plenty of opportunity for potentially distant shotgun marriages around the country, though few reach the caustic depths of one calling for the other’s ouster as in Illinois today – or the razor’s-edge rivalry of Minnesota in 1962.