The farm bill stalled in the Senate is jeopardizing Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R-Minn.) attempt to resurrect his image with Minnesota sugar beet growers, a key constituency in his state.

Much is at stake for Coleman, who faces a tough road to reelection in a state with a large rural population and a sugar industry with a lot on the line in the farm bill. That industry is still smarting from Coleman’s 2005 vote to approve the contentious Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), but the farm bill includes key provisions that could protect the industry from a flood of low-priced imports.

Even though Coleman joined just three other Republicans last week in a failed procedural motion to end debate, Democrats hint that he may be found guilty by association.

“Republican senators have the president going after their constituents. How are you going to explain that?” said House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D), who represents the sugar beet industry in his Western Minnesota district.

The freshman Democrat from Minnesota, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, said she would tell 1,000 Minnesota farmers at a meeting during the Thanksgiving recess that Republicans were trying to kill the bill.

When asked if she would point out that Coleman voted to end debate on the bill, Klobuchar said, “They know that; I don’t need to tell them.”

The farm bill was supposed to provide Coleman with an opportunity to reconnect with the sugar industry in Minnesota, which has spurned him since the CAFTA vote. The American Crystal Sugar Political Action Committee, which has donated nearly $1 million to political candidates this year, gave Coleman about $15,000 between 2001 and 2004, but has not given him a donation since the CAFTA vote, according to CQ PoliticalMoneyLine.

Minnesota is the country’s top state grower of sugar beets, which account for roughly 55 percent of the United States’s produced sugar.

The stalled farm bill allows Coleman’s opponents to paint him as ineffective in persuading his GOP colleagues to break ranks, a point made by Democrat Mike Ciresi, an attorney from Minnesota who is trying to unseat Coleman next fall.

“What is he doing to lobby his fellow Republicans?” Ciresi said.

 Coleman said he is not to blame for the gridlock and predicted that the bill would be revived and could clear Congress “by the time we drink eggnog.” The senator did not criticize his Republican leaders, saying he believes “we’re still at the early stages of posturing.”

“I’ve worked hard on it; I think it’s a good bill,” Coleman said. “On the other hand, I understand that there is a process here. I think it would be healthy if folks on both sides would recognize the minority has a right to offer amendments, and I line up with those who want to get a farm bill.”

With 2,600 jobs in beet fields and sugar refining factories, the sugar beet trade has much to gain from the farm bill. For example, the loan rate for the commodity would be increased by one cent over time in the Senate version of the bill.

In addition, sugar produced in the United States would be guaranteed 85 percent of the domestic market under the House and Senate bills, according to Nick Sinner, executive director of the Red River Valley Sugar Beets Grower Association, which represents the industry along the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

This is a key provision for the U.S. sugar industry, since without the protection increased imports of Mexican and Central American sugar would be allowed under U.S. trade agreements.

“He is working very hard on our behalf, and we appreciate it,” said Sinner, who noted that the industry was unhappy with the CAFTA vote outcome. The senator “could be very pivotal for us” on the farm bill.

Ciseri and comedian Al Franken, another Democratic candidate for the seat, have continued to remind voters of Coleman’s support of CAFTA. Coleman’s campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, lashed back at the Democrats, saying they were “not very in tune” with the direction of U.S. sugar policy, and said that running on agriculture issues gives Coleman a “home-court advantage.”

Most polls show Coleman with a narrow lead over Franken and Ciresi in head-to-head matchups. The senator has a 37 percent disapproval rating, according to a late-September poll held by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

In the last fundraising quarter, Franken raised $1.8 million in contributions while Coleman brought in $1.5 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. The incumbent still has more cash on hand, however, with $4.9 million to Franken’s $2.4 million. Ciresi has just over $600,000 in cash on hand.

One political analyst said Coleman’s move against his party on the farm bill procedural fight could soften his image in the North Star State.

“I think it is part of an overall effort by Sen. Coleman to appear not as partisan as he did earlier in his Senate tenure, that he is the more moderate choice than his opponents,” said Barbara Headrick, chairwoman of the political science department at Minnesota State University at Moorhead. “It is very smart to have the agricultural industry and the farmers connected to that industry not angry at him.”

Jim Snyder contributed to this story.