Republican Senate candidate Norm Coleman is hoping for the best but preparing for the worst in his challenge of the Minnesota Senate race outcome.

With the trial wrapped up Friday and judges set to begin to deliberations, Coleman’s attorney’s distributed a memo laying out a “two track” strategy which they say has the former senator “poised … to be sworn into the U.S. Senate.” Coleman, whose first term expired in January, is fighting a recount outcome that put Democratic challenger Al Franken ahead by 225 votes out of 2.9 million cast.

The memo says that on the first track, i.e. the trial as it has played out over the past seven weeks, Coleman could take the lead if the judges hearing the case “embrace the Minnesota tradition of enfranchising voters and agree to open and count the wrongly rejected absentee ballots.” Given the judges rulings throughout the case, many local court watchers deem that unlikely.