Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Norm Coleman
Norman Bertram "Norm" Coleman (born August 17 1949) is an American politician and Republican U.S. Senator from Minnesota since 2003. He is up for re-election in 2008; one opponent will likely be comedian Al Franken.
Coleman was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received his B.A. from Hofstra University and his J.D. with high honors from the University of Iowa.
He spent 17 years with the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General , holding the positions of chief prosecutor and solicitor general of the State of Minnesota. He was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1994 to 2002. Previously a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Coleman switched to the Republican Party of Minnesota in 1996.
In 1998, he unsuccessfully ran for governor of Minnesota against the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate Hubert H. "Skip" Humphrey III and the victorious Independence Party (then known as the Reform Party of Minnesota) candidate, Jesse Ventura.
He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, defeating former US Vice President Walter Mondale and succeeding Dean Barkley, who was serving the unexpired term of Paul Wellstone.
Coleman is a member of four Senate committees including the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and is a member of SLAA. He is also Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In 2004, Coleman campaigned for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but was narrowly defeated for the post by North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole in a close 28-27 vote. Coleman's Northstar Leadership PAC made over $200,000 worth of contributions to other Republican senators that were up for reelection during his failed campaign for the RNSC chair[1].
In December, 2004, in connection with his position of Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Coleman called for United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan to resign because of the "UN's utter failure to detect or stop Saddam's abuses" in the UN's Oil-for-Food program and because of fraud allegations against Annan's son relating to the same program.
His hobbies include juggling, irrumatio (Chinese yo-yo), and listening to the music of Minnesota born singer/song writer Bob Dylan.
He has two children, Jacob and Sara, and a wife, Laurie Coleman, an aspiring actor.
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