Paul Wellstone

Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 - October 25, 2002) was a Democratic U.S. senator from Minnesota, elected in 1990 and serving until his death in a plane crash in 2002. He was an avowed liberal, and was one of the strongest spokesmen for the left wing of his party in Congress.

Career

Senator Wellstone pushed for peace, and environmentalism, and joined his wife Sheila to support victims of domestic violence. He opposed the first Gulf War in 1991 and in 2002 he voted against authorizing President Bush to use force against Iraq. He was strongly supported by groups such as Americans for Democratic Action.

Wellstone was far from a polished politician; rather, the 5'5" (165cm) former wrestler came across like the political science professor he was. Seemingly tired or dismayed most of the time, he visibly agonized over decisions, considering all sides. But he invariably chose a position, and argued for it strongly and without compromise on the Senate floor. He earned a reputation as a windbag in his early years until he better learned the back-room dealings that allow the Senate to function smoothly. Very frequently in the minority, he disagreed with everybody on at least one issue, and with most other Senators on a host of them. However, Wellstone gained respect from all sides of the aisle as someone who could separate differences of political opinion from personal connections.

He was in a line of left-of-center or progressive members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), Minnesota's delegation of the Democratic party. The first three, Hubert H. Humphrey, Eugene J. McCarthy and Walter F. Mondale, all ran for their party's nomination for the presidency.

Wellstone was born in Washington D.C. to Russian immigrants, Leon and Minnie Wellstone, and raised in Arlington, Virginia. He attended Yorktown High School in Arlington. He went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a wrestling scholarship, graduating with a degree in political science in three years. He was an Atlantic Coast Conference champion.

In 1965 he earned his B.A., and four years later was awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science. Wellstone's 1969 doctoral dissertation at UNC was "Black Militants in the Ghetto: Why They Believe in Violence."

He went on to become a professor of political science at Minnesota's Carleton College where he taught for 21 years until 1990, and helped run the 1984 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson in Minnesota.

He first ran for the Senate in 1990, upsetting incumbent Rudy Boschwitz with 50.4%, defeating Boschwitz again for re-election in 1996. It was Boschwitz who first called him "Senator Welfare".

Although he had promised to step down after two terms, in 2002 Wellstone campaigned for re-election to a third term against Republican Norm Coleman. Earlier that year he announced he had a mild form of multiple sclerosis, causing the limp he had believed was an old wrestling injury.

Death

On October 25, 2002, he was killed at the age of 58 with seven others in a plane crash in northern Minnesota. The other victims were his wife, Sheila, one of his three children, Marcia, the two pilots, and campaign staffers Will McLaughlin, Tom Lapic, and Mary McEvoy. The plane was en route to Eveleth where Wellstone was to attend the funeral of Martin Rukavina, a steelworker whose son Tom Rukavina was in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Wellstone decided to go to the funeral instead of a rally and fundraiser in Minneapolis attended by Mondale and fellow Senator Ted Kennedy. He was to debate Coleman in Duluth that night.

The Beechcraft King Air A100 plane crashed in freezing rain and snow about two miles from the Eveleth airport and into a dense forest. Investigators were dismayed to learn that unlike commercial planes, the charter plane Wellstone was traveling in had no cockpit voice recorder. Both pilots tested negative for drug or alcohol use. One contributing factor to the accident may have been fatigue: the day before the crash, the first pilot had flown an unexpected trip from 3 - 9:30 am and then worked a nursing shift from 6 - 10 pm. Wellstone's flight started at 9:20 am the next morning.

Wellstone's death came just 11 days before his potential re-election in a crucial race to maintain Democratic control of the Senate. Campaigning was halted by all sides. Wellstone followed Governor Mel Carnahan, Senator John Heinz, and Congressman Jerry Litton in dying in plane crashes during Senate campaigns (in 2000, 1991, and 1976 respectively).

Minnesota law required that his name be struck from the ballot, to be replaced by a candidate chosen by the party. This replacement candidate was ex-Vice President Walter Mondale, who accepted the nomination and later lost the election to Norm Coleman.

The memorial service for Wellstone and the other victims of the crash was held in Williams Arena of the University of Minnesota and was broadcast live on TV. Such high profile politicans that showed up for the memorial were Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Trent Lott, and Rod Grams. After Rick Kahn began urging that crowd should win the election for Wellstone and that Republicans should stop their opposition to the senate seat, Governor Jesse Ventura of the Independence Party stormed out of the service in disgust.

Republicans later claimed that the event was partisan, and that the Democrats had essentially received free election campaign airtime. Governor Ventura, who had the option to pick a replacement senator to serve out Wellstone's term which lasted until January 2003, went so far as to declare he would solicit resumés for the senatorial position and refuse Democrats. On the other hand, the pre-election outrage swirling around Wellstone's memorial has been condemned by Democrats like radio personality Al Franken as calculated.

On November 4th, the day before Election Day, Ventura appointed state planning commissioner Dean Barkley of the Independence Party to complete Wellstone's Senate term.

Wellstone is survived by his sons David and Mark and six grandchildren. The AFL-CIO, has created the AFL-CIO Senator Paul Wellstone Award for supporters of the rights of labor. Presidential candidate Howard Dean and California state Sen. John Burton both received the first award in January of 2003.

Quotes

"I'm from the democratic wing of the Democratic Party."
"Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and the world. Politics is about doing well for the people."