Sen. Norm Coleman’s cliffhanger reelection race in Minnesota has complicated his long-sought bid to take the reins of an influential Republican campaign committee, senior GOP aides said Monday.

The Senate Republican Conference is scheduled to hold votes Nov. 18 on key leadership positions for the 111th Congress, even though the outcomes of races in Minnesota, Alaska and Georgia have yet to be determined.

According to several aides and senators, Coleman has signaled his interest in taking over as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which will spearhead the GOP’s Senate election effort in 2010. Coleman, who lost his NRSC chairmanship bid narrowly in 2004 to Sen. Elizabeth Dole (N.C.), would face off next week against Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), in the one contested Senate GOP leadership race.

With his race in flux, Coleman may ultimately bow out of the race, but his office has not yet made the senator’s intentions clear.

Leroy Coleman, a spokesman, said the senator has been approached to run for the NRSC chairmanship by a number of his colleagues.

“But right now he’s strictly focused on the recount effort,” the spokesman said, declining further comment.

In next week’s meeting, the conference also may decide on rules changes proposed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), including a two-year ban on earmarks and term limits for leadership positions and for Republicans serving on the Appropriations Committee. The conference will also begin to debate how to handle Sen. Ted Stevens’s (R) felony conviction, especially if he pulls off a win in his Senate race in Alaska. Some Republicans seem open to standing behind the longest-serving GOP senator in history as he appeals his conviction, while others argue he should be stripped of all committee assignments and ultimately expelled to show that the party is rooting out corruption. DeMint has also informed his party's leaders that he will offer a rule targeting Stevens's ability to serve in the conference, one aide said Monday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Minority Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) are expected to retain their leadership spots next Congress. 

Meanwhile, Sen. John Ensign (Nevada) plans to relinquish his NRSC chairmanship to become the next GOP Policy Committee chairman, the No. 4 spot in leadership, and Sen. John Thune (S.D.) is running uncontested to become the next vice chairman of the conference.

Running the NRSC is one of the most critical positions in the GOP hierarchy, with the chairman deciding which campaigns to spend millions of dollars on and recruiting challengers against Democratic incumbents. It is also seen as a steppingstone to becoming Senate Republican leader, a path McConnell charted in his ascension in leadership.

Since the day after Republicans lost at least six seats in this year’s election, Cornyn has been making phone calls to shore up support while Coleman has been engrossed in his nail-biter race for a second term in the Senate.

Several Republicans said they are not eager to push back a vote on the next NRSC chairman until after Coleman’s race is decided in December, saying the committee can’t spare time to build its campaign war chest in a cycle in which several Democrats will be targeted, including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

“How can you risk losing a whole month and not having someone in place at the NRSC?” one GOP aide said.

Complicating the Minnesotan’s bid is the perception that the Senate GOP would be dealt an embarrassing blow if it elects Coleman as the next NRSC chairman next week but he ultimately loses his reelection bid to Franken.

“Would that make Franken the chairman of the NRSC?” another GOP aide quipped.

Coleman will return to Washington next week for Congress’s brief lame-duck session and the party’s conference meeting.

Brian Walsh, a spokesman for Cornyn, confirmed his boss’s intention to seek the NRSC chairmanship, but declined to comment further.

Cornyn's arguments may also be made easier since his Texas GOP counterpart, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is likely to resign her Senate seat and run for governor in 2010, spurring a special election as early as 2009. He could argue that his knowledge and fundraising prowess in Texas would help ensure the seat stays in GOP hands.