Five things to know about Norm Coleman

Last update: October 12, 2008 - 12:26 AM

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FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT NORM COLEMAN

1 Named after his father, Coleman was known to his family as "Doona," taken from big sister Kandace's childhood mispronunciation of "Junior."

2 Coleman has found an impeccably typical Minnesota escape from the stresses of politics, one he could hardly have imagined as a boy in Brooklyn: fishing for walleye and bass in northern Minnesota. He says his son Jacob got him started and calls time spent fishing "almost spiritual."

3 In a heated debate during his student-activist days at Hofstra University, Coleman once took a punch in the face from student Senate candidate Tommy Bugglin. Coleman minimized the incident and Bugglin evaded any serious trouble. Coleman still says, "It was no big deal."

4 Coleman is a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn. New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, attended high school with Coleman, who is vying to become chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Other famous alumni: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

5 Despite Coleman's past as a student radical, his older sister, Kandace Gittleman, who helped him win his student government election in grade school, says, "I don't think that Norm was ever rebellious."

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