Coleman Declines to Run for RNC Chairmanship

Former Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has decided against running for chairman of the Republican National Committee. The decision of current RNC chairman Michael Steele to run for re-election dictated Coleman’s decision, Politico reports.

"I’ve been pretty consistent on this, it’s very simple: I’ve said if Steele was running, I wouldn’t run against him,” Coleman tells MinnPost. “He strongly supported me in the past. I made that commitment to him a number of months ago — if he’s in I’m not in."

Before Steele decided to run for re-election — many leading Republicans thought he wouldn’t — a source close to Coleman told Politico the former senator would probably go for it, “based on his ability to raise money and act as a national surrogate.”