Poll: Even Minnesota's Most GOP District Doesn't Like Norm Coleman

Some new numbers by Public Policy Polling (D) have some bad news and good news for former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), if he decides to run for governor in 2010: Even the state's most Republican Congressional district, which is represented by Michele Bachmann, doesn't actually like him -- but they'd still vote for him against a Democrat.

Coleman's favorable rating here is only 41%, with a 42% unfavorable rating and a margin of error of ±3.7%. However, in gubernatorial general election match-ups Coleman leads Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak by 49%-36%, and he leads former Sen. Mark Dayton by 50%-36%.

Intuitively, you would think that Coleman might benefit from a certain "we was robbed" mentality with the party base, after his disputed re-election defeat by Democrat Al Franken. But in a district that John McCain carried by 53%-45%, and which also views its fiery conservative Congresswoman quite favorably, Norm's ratings are pretty lackluster.

PPP's Tom Jensen declares Coleman to be "damaged goods": "His statewide numbers are likely to be much more brutal than that. Keep in mind Coleman still leads Mark Dayton and RT Rybak by 13-14 points in the district in hypothetical contests but that's probably got more to do with its GOP leaning nature and Coleman's superior name recognition than anything else. Coleman will have to do some serious rehabilitation of his image if he decides to jump in the race."

As a bonus for the other big-name Republican in Minnesota, the poll also shows that only 32% of the voters in this district want to see Gov. Tim Pawlenty run for president in 2012, with 50% against it. And this is at the same time as Pawlenty enjoys a 52%-39% approval rating in this district on his performance as governor.