First-term Republican Senator Norm Coleman will make his bid for re-election official today with rallies at campaign offices in St. Paul, the city he once served as Mayor, the Associated Press reports this morning. Coleman, first elected Mayor as a Democrat before switching to the GOP and winning re-election, will face a stiff challenge from likely Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nominee Al Franken, a comedian best known for his political satire on Saturday Night Live.

There are few Republicans Democrats would rather deprive of re-election than Coleman, who won his seat in 2002 after the death of Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, just weeks before election day, in a plane crash. Wellstone's name was replaced on the ballot by former Vice President Walter Mondale, and Coleman prevailed by a 50%-47% margin. Now, the DSCC is training all its guns on the incumbent. "For six years, Norm Coleman has sided with special interests every time he should have been standing up for Minnesota, and voters aren't going to be fooled by his attempts at an election year makeover," DSCC spokesman Matt Miller told Politics Nation.

That wasn't the first time Coleman had faced a well-known opponent. In 1998, Coleman's rise to the top was halted by independent candidate Jesse Ventura, who beat the Republican and a lesser-known Democrat to win the governor's mansion. This time again, Coleman will face an opponent with high name identification, and he's prepared his attacks already, another Associated Press story reports.

In fact, with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee shining the spotlight his way, Coleman's goal this year will be to turn attention back to Franken's career of edgy, sometimes racy remarks. "If the partisan disease is what's tearing Washington apart, for years he was part of that," Coleman told the AP. "The talk radio culture, the Rush Limbaughs, the Ann Coulters, the Al Frankens. If that's the disease, I've tried to be the cure to that disease for a long time."

The NRSC is sounding the same theme. "Sen. Coleman provides Minnesota voters with a choice between a results-oriented statesman and an angry liberal comedian," communications director Rebecca Fisher said. "We are confident that there is no question in most voters' minds that Sen. Coleman will return to Washington in November."

National Democrats see Coleman as one of the most vulnerable incumbents of the cycle, and polls bear that analysis out. A January survey from the Humphrey Institute, conducted for Minnesota Public Radio, showed Franken leading Coleman by a narrow margin, while Coleman easily led other potential Democratic candidates. Franken, too, has outraised Coleman several quarters in a row, though the Democrat is spending money at a faster clip and remains significantly behind the incumbent in cash on hand.

Franken will benefit from the state's Democratic tilt, especially in a presidential election year and as the national Republican brand is suffering. No state has voted for more Democrats in a row than Minnesota, which last cast its electoral votes for a Republican in 1972. And last year, Democrats captured the state's First District, where Rep. Tim Walz surprised observers by knocking off Republican Gil Gutknecht. This year, national Democrats are excited about their chances in the state's Third District, where Republican Jim Ramstad is retiring.

The NRSC will likely spend heavily to protect Coleman, who with New Hampshire Senator John Sununu is seen as one of the party's most vulnerable incumbents. And Coleman will be aided by the Republican National Convention, which will be held in his city, and GOP hopes that it might actually pick up the state's electoral votes after President Bush lost the state by only two and three points in his two bids.

Franken still faces nominal opposition at the state party's convention in June, but the DFLer has already turned his fire on Coleman. With the incumbent and the challenger already attacking each other, and with both candidates having raised an astonishing $13.8 million combined through December, Minnesota's Senate contest will likely turn out to be one of the nastiest and most bitter of the entire cycle. Coleman, kicking off his re-election bid today, will waste no time wading hip-deep into the mud.