Coleman, Norm

Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. (born August 17, 1949) is an American lobbyist, attorney, and politician. Elected Mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1993 as a Democrat, he joined the Republican Party in 1996 and was elected U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 2002. Coleman lost his 2008 Senate reelection bid to Al Franken by 312 votes out of over three million cast.

Born in New York City, he graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn before earning a B.A. from Hofstra University. After working as a roadie for a period, he attended Brooklyn Law School and earned a J.D. from the University of Iowa School of Law. 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. In 1993, Coleman was elected Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. One of Coleman's accomplishments as mayor of Saint Paul was to bring professional ice hockey back to Minnesota. Coleman also successfully fought property tax increases, freezing property tax rates for the eight years he served as mayor. During Coleman's mayoralty St. Paul's job rate grew by 7.1 percent and 18,000 jobs were added. After easily securing the Republican nomination for Governor of Minnesota. Though polling even with Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey, III for most of the race, both Coleman and Humphrey were ultimately upset by Reform Party candidate Jesse Ventura.

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 that year's election instead. Coleman easily won the Republican nomination. After Wellstone's death eleven days before the election, the Democrats chose former Vice President Walter Mondale to replace Wellstone on the ballot. Coleman ultimately defeated Mondale by just over 61,000 votes out of over 2 million cast. As a Senator, Coleman was a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership. In March 2007 National Journal ranked him the fourth most liberal Republican in the Senate. GovTrack, an independent tracking website, also described Coleman as a "moderate Republican". In September 2008 Coleman joined the bipartisan Gang of 20, which was seeking a solution to the American energy crisis. The group pushed for a bill that would encourage state-by-state decisions on offshore drilling and authorize billions of dollars for conservation and alternative energy. Coleman was generally regarded as a fiscal centrist who supported increasing the minimum wage and safeguarding pensions while at the same time supporting broad tax relief and the line-item veto. In his 2008 re-election bid, Coleman lost to Al Franken by 312 votes.

In January 2009, Coleman became an adviser to and board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition. In April 2011 Coleman joined Hogan Lovells, an international legal practice, as senior government advisor in its Washington D.C. office. Coleman stepped down as leader of the Government Relations and Public Affairs practice at Hogan Lovells in January 2020 but remains a senior counsel. He is on the National Advisory Council for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a bipartisan committee that promotes international engagement and includes every living former U.S. Secretary of State and also works as a lobbyist on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia.