Until now, Sen. Norm Coleman has waged a reelection campaign remotely — mostly through press releases and Web videos. This week, he takes to the streets.

On Wednesday, Coleman officially launches his campaign with a rally, followed by a three-day tour around the state and another day attending GOP congressional district conventions.

Not willing to cede the spotlight, Democrat Al Franken announced this morning that on Tuesday he’ll hold a rally, announce “exciting new endorsements and deliver a major speech defining the issues of this campaign.” That event will be in the State Capitol Rotunda at 10:30 a.m.

The Coleman tour begins at his campaign headquarters, 680 Transfer Rd., St Paul, at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Later in the day he stops in Rochester, Duluth and Moorhead. Thursday’s schedule brings him to Fergus Falls, Alexandria and St. Cloud. On Friday, he make six stops — in Shakopee, St. Peter, Mankato, Waseca, Owatonna and Albert Lea. (The time and location of each stop can be found in the Coming Up feature on Politically Connected, www.startribune.com/politics.

On Saturday, he attends congressional district endorsing coventions in Albert Lea (First District), Northfield (Second District) and Hibbing (Eighth District).

The other major candidate in the race, Democrat Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, has a Friday night event on his public schedule — holding a campaign house party in Minneapolis. (Details in Coming Up.)

On Friday, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer’s campaign sent out a three-exclamation-point press release headlined: “Thanks to you, this is now a two person race!!!”

The release claimed that Nelson-Pallmeyer had “surpassed Mike Ciresi in delegate support.” It cited a local DFL convention Duluth, and gave the delegate-selection results as Nelson-Pallmeyer 10, Al Franken 10 and Ciresi 2.

The DFL doesn’t track delegates at this stage of the U.S. Senate race — between the precinct caucuses and the state endorsing convention in June — so there’s no way to measure delegates statewide. But anecdotal reports were confirming the essence of Nelson-Pallmeyer’s point: Ciresi was struggling.

This afternoon, Ciresi abandoned the race, issuing a press release that barely addressed why he made the decision. This passage was the only comment on that point: “In my judgment, continuing the endorsement race would only lead to an unnecessary floor fight. It is time to step aside.”

Now, it really is a two-person race. (There are a couple other candidates who aren’t a factor).

Franken clearly is — and always has been — the frontrunner. He has raised $5.2 million for his campaign, compared with $284,000 for Nelson-Pallmeyer. Franken has already run television commercials, and he enjoys high name recognition by virtue of his celebrity status. However, he also has a high unfavorable rating.

Nelson-Pallmeyer was a late entrant, only announcing his candidacy in October. He has run an energetic campaign, has impressed debate audiences and can point to a passionate group of supporters.

Usually, when it comes to describing a candidate’s supporters, “passionate” is code for “small.”

Is that the case with Nelson-Pallmeyer?

Compared to Franken, Nelson-Pallmeyer certainly lacks the nationwide network of financial contributors. Closer to home, Nelson-Pallmeyer is coming up short in key union endorsements, compared with Franken, who has the backing of labor groups ranging from teachers to public employees to steelworkers to teamsters.

We’ve seen in the past, though, that Minnesota’s process of selecting convention delegates through the precinct caucus system opens the door wide open to the right grassroots candidate.

Is Nelson-Pallmeyer that candidate?

On today’s Pig’s Eye Podcast, we talk with U.S. Senate candidate Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. He’s proving to be very popular at the Democratic candidate debates.

On Pig’s Eye, Nelson-Pallmeyer talks about a number of topics in which he differs from his DFL rivals, including Iran and nuclear weapons and single-payer health care. You can listen to the podcast here.

To learn more about Nelson-Pallmeyer:

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer

Here’s our story when he announced his candidacy.

Here’s a story about a DFL debate on Nov. 27, and another story about a debate on Sept. 30, before he had declared his candidacy.

Here’s Nelson-Pallmeyer’s website.

Here are some blogger reports or comments about him, including Norweigianity’s summary of the Nov. 27 debate, and Minnesota Monitor’s summary of the same debate.

How do you assess Nelson-Pallmeyer’s chances of winning the DFL endorsement and nomination, and of beating Sen. Norm Coleman?

Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race is being watched closely by many outside Minnesota. Here’s a look at what bloggers beyond our borders are saying.

Al Franken

Al Franken

The Texas Liberal blog reports from inside Franken’s fundraiser in Houston recently. Besides recounting what Franken had to say — he described himself as the likely DFL nominee; he’ll fight aggressively against negative attacks; and he likes meeting people — Texas Liberal tells how to get into a $500 fundraiser for a mere $50.

Brendan Nyhan takes Franken to task for suggesting that the government levy fines for lying on the airwaves, arguing that Franken’s position would silence speech and target political minorities.

This link on Propeller.com — to a recent story in The Nation – led to a lively exchange, with views on Franken ranging from he’ll lose because he projects an air of intellectual superiority to he’ll have so much hilarious material to work with as a senator that he’ll make C-SPAN worth watching.

Norm Coleman
Coleman’s vote in committee Wednesday against the Law of the Sea treaty landed him in some blogs yesterday. The Citizens for Global Solutions pointed out in a blog posting that of the four “no” votes, “the biggest surprise was Coleman, who voted in favor of the treaty in 2004.” It goes on to say that “substance means little to Coleman, who was John Bolton’s strongest supporter in confirmation hearings during the last Congress.” The treaty is opposed by some who argue that it cedes U.S. sovereignty to the United Nations and an international commission.

Sen. Norm Coleman

THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS reports on Coleman’s recent speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington and includes this tribute to him: “Whether it is the War on Terror or a collapsing bridge, Norm Coleman gets the big picture. His toughness is mixed with a significant amount of warmth. He is a genuinely kind man, and he was truly beloved in the room.” The blogger also offers Coleman a line he can use that equates Democrats with Minnesota Vikings on a party boat. Coleman laughs (but I don’t think you’ll be hearing Coleman use the line himself).

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
Nelson-Pallmeyer got a plug in the Citizens for Global Solutions blog posting about the Law of the Sea Treaty (see above). It added an update to the item about Coleman, noting that Nelson-Pallmeyer “is the first of Coleman’s challengers out of the gate to point out this massive and as-yet-unexplained flip flop.”

Nelson-Pallmeyer also earned a mention in the Lonely Candidate, which tracks instances in which candidates who claim to be the only one who (fill-in-the-blank). It cited this quote from Nelson-Pallmeyer: “I’m the only candidate in this race who has a hyphenated last name.”

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer

Mike Ciresi
Ciresi received a passing plug in a Rhode Island’s Future blog item about Franken appearing at the Blue State Coffee shop in Providence. Matt Jerzyk says, “I actually like the other Democrat in the race - Mike Ciresi - as much as Franken.” That’s as far as the praise goes, but there you have it.

Mike Ciresi

On Daily Kos, The Big E writes about how the Iraq war is playing in the race. Ciresi has been jabbing at Franken for supporting the war at the outset. The Big E shoot back that while Ciresi opposed the war at the outset, he didn’t do much to act on his opposition. He adds: “Which leads me to one critical point about Mike Ciresi in comparison to Al Franken. Ciresi hasn’t done much in the last five years.”

Jim Cohen
Cohen is another Democratic challenger, but when he shows up in non-Minnesota blogs, the posting is not about him. He’s just mentioned as another candidate. If anyone knows of non-Minnesota posts about him, please add them.

For some time, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer had been an unofficial but very visible U.S. senate candidate, and on Wednesday he made it official. Here’s our story by Bob von Sternberg about yesterday’s announcement.

As a professor of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas, Nelson-Pallmeyer has already made a name for himself as a speaker, writer and activist. And as a semi-candidate for the senate, he’s been invited to a number of DFL candidate debates recently. So unlike most candidates who aren’t household names, there’s already quite a bit of information available about him.

Here’s our video and here’s our story about a Sept. 30 debate at Augsburg College, which included Nelson-Pallmeyer.

And here’s his opening statement at a Sept. 5 debate sponsored by the Golden Valley Progressives. Several other videos covering the entire debate are also posted on You Tube.

Here’s a St. Thomas page about him, which includes a list of his books. Among them: a novel called “Harvest of Cain.”

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (left), Mike Ciresi, Jim Cohen and Al Franken

Here’s his campaign website: www.jackforsenate.org (Don’t confuse it with a jackforsenate.com, which belongs to a 2004 Republican candidate in Connecticut.)

And here are a couple of blog posts about him:

MNPublius includes a copy of the campaign’s pre-announcement, and a related discussion about bean feeds.

This post on Norweigianty is about the Sept. 30 Augsburg debate. It describes Nelson-Pallmeyer as getting “the most frequent and loudest applause. He was also pandering to the audience to a certain degree.”

Nelson-Pallmeyer made waves early last year when he announced he would challenge U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo for the DFL endorsement. About a month later, Sabo surprised everyone by announcing that he would retire, and Keith Ellison went on to win the party endorsement and the seat.

Nelson-Pallmeyer has a strong following among those in the party’s progressive wing. It’s no surprise that he’s chosen the Wellstone green and white color scheme.

What impact do you think Nelson-Pallmeyer will have in the race for the DFL endorsement for the senate? Does he automatically become a major factor, or does he still have to prove that he can win over rank-and-file delegates? And if he does become the party’s nominee, how does he stack up against Sen. Norm Coleman?