Polls Shows Political Future Possible for Norm Coleman -- as Minnesota Governor

Former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman is the overwhelming choice for Minnesota's Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2010, according to a new Rasmussen poll released Monday.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, announced that he will not seek re-election -- fueling speculation that he is eyeing the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.

The poll, which surveyed 330 likely Republican primary voters in Minnesota, found that 50 percent prefer Coleman over the state's three other top potential GOP candidates.

Eleven percent of GOP respondents said they favored former Minnesota's House minority leader and currently state Rep. Marty Seitfert, while 5 percent said they back State Rep. Laura Brod, who withdrew from the race for medical races, the poll found. One percent said they preferred state Rep. Tom Emmer and 7 percent said they will support another candidate.

Coleman, who lost his 2008 Senate re-election bid to Democrat Al Franken after a lengthy and tedious vote recount, has not yet indicated any interest in running for the state's governor.

Democrats, meanwhile, are evenly split on their party's prospective gubernatorial nominee.  Of the 402 likely Democratic primary voters surveyed, 30 percent said they will back Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and another 30 percent said they favored former Sen. Mark Dayton, according to the poll.

The survey found that 46 percent of Minnesota voters said they would not vote for Pawlenty if he won his party's presidential nomination, while 42 percent said they would support him as the GOP front runner.

The Rasmussen poll, conducted Nov. 10, has a sampling error of 5.5 percentage points.