BBG Watch has learned that unconfirmed reports list former U.S. Senator Norman Coleman is one of the potential candidates to fill a vacant Republican position on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). President Obama has already nominated Jeffrey Shell, President of NBCUniversal International, to be one of BBG’s Democratic members and the BBG Chairman.
Shell would take the position of Walter Isaacson who had resigned earlier this year. Shell’s nomination is unlikely be confirmed, however, by the U.S. Senate unless there is also a Republican nominee to occupy the position of S. Enders Wimbush who had also resigned from the BBG.
Sources told BBG Watch that former Senator Coleman, who was also mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002, was among several Republican candidates for the BBG being considered by the White House. Previously a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), Coleman became a Republican in 1996. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009, but lost his re-election bid in 2008 to Democrat Al Franken by 312 votes (out of over 3 million cast).
Coleman has a strong background in foreign policy and public diplomacy. Wikipedia entry states that as of 2012, Coleman continues to serve on the board of directors to the Republican Jewish Coalition and as Chairman of the American Action Network. Coleman is also on the National Advisory Council for the US Global Leadership Coalition, a bipartisan committee that promotes interntational engagement, and includes every living former US Secretary of State.
If President Obama nominates Coleman for the BBG, you can say that you read it first on BBG Watch, but we are not presenting this news as fully confirmed. BBG Watch is reporting only that he is being discussed as a potential Republican candidate to be nominated by President Obama to serve on the BBG.