By Zack Stovall
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A North Little Rock Republican is testing the waters for a potential run for the U.S. Senate next year.
Businessman Curtis Coleman filed papers with the Federal Election Commission this week to form a committee to explore a run for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. Lincoln is seeking re-election to a third term in the 2010 election.
Coleman, the 61-year-old owner of SafeFoods Corp., a food safety solutions plant that reduces food-borne pathogens, said Friday he had considered the move for nearly seven months.
“This is the next step towards running. I’m looking seriously at it but I have made no final decision,” he said in an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau.
Coleman managed the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of former Gov. Mike Huckabee in 1992 but has never run for public office.
He said he would need to raise $500,000 in the next six months to show himself as a viable candidate, and up to $2 million overall to compete in an expected GOP primary. A general election race against Lincoln would take $5 million to $8 million, he said.
“I’m confident I can do that,” he said.
Coleman said his six grandchildren, with a seventh on the way, were his primary concern in weighing whether to run for the Senate.
“You can’t enter a national campaign like this without dragging your whole family through it,” he said.
On the other hand, “I couldn’t stand to look at my grandchildren without telling them I at least tried to make a difference in the direction of this country,” Coleman said. “I’m enormously concerned that we’re mortgaging their future. Sooner or later that’s got to be paid.”
He said he sensed “fatigue” with career politicians among voters, and he said his experience as a businessman and lack of experience as a politician could be an asset in a Senate campaign.
State Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette, is the only announced GOP candidate for Lincoln’s seat.
Hendren has drawn criticism this week for referring to New York Sen. Charles Schumer as “that Jew” during a recent appearance at a Pulaski County GOP gathering, including a rebuke Friday from the national Republican Jewish Coalition.
“That kind of language, which identifies an individual solely by their religion, their race, or another characteristic, has no place in politics,” said Matthew Brooks, the organization’s executive director.
——-
The Associated Press contributed to this report
