Paul Wellstone | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait,c. 2002 | |
| United States Senator fromMinnesota | |
| In office January 3, 1991 – October 25, 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Rudy Boschwitz |
| Succeeded by | Dean Barkley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Paul David Wellstone (1944-07-21)July 21, 1944 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Died | October 25, 2002(2002-10-25) (aged 58) |
| Cause of death | Airplane crash |
| Resting place | Lakewood Cemetery |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA,MA,PhD) |
| Signature |  |
Wellstone introduces S.422, the Taconite Workers Relief Act of 2001 Recorded March 1, 2001 | |
Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who representedMinnesota in theUnited States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash nearEveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A member of theDemocratic Party (DFL), Wellstone was a leader of thepopulist andprogressive wings of the party.
Born in Washington, D.C., Wellstone grew up inNorthern Virginia. He went on to graduate from theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor's of Arts and a doctorate inpolitical science. In 1969, Wellstone was hired as a professor atCarleton College inNorthfield, Minnesota, where he taught until his election to the Senate in 1990. In addition, he also worked as a local activist andcommunity organizer in ruralRice County. In 1982, he made his first bid for political office in that year'sMinnesota State Auditor race. His campaign was unsuccessful, losing to Republican incumbentArne Carlson.
Wellstone challenged two-termRepublican incumbentRudy Boschwitz in the1990 United States Senate election. Wellstone was widely seen as an underdog and was significantly outspent by Boschwitz. Using his progressive populism andgrassroots campaigning tactics, such as his iconic green school bus, Wellstone won in an upset victory that gained him national attention. He was the only challenger in the country that year to defeat an incumbent senator. In his1996 reelection campaign, he defeated Boschwitz in a rematch. He won the elections with 50.4% and 50.3% of the vote, respectively.
While in the U.S. Senate, Wellstone was a supporter of environmental protection, labor groups, and health care reform. He notably authored the "Wellstone Amendment" for theBipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. However, his efforts towardcampaign finance reform were overturned in 2010 by theU.S. Supreme Court inCitizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Wellstone was a candidate for reelection to the Senate in2002 and was facing formerSaint Paul mayorNorm Coleman in a competitive race when, a few weeks before the election, Wellstone died in a plane crash nearEveleth, Minnesota. His wife,Sheila, and daughter, Marcia, also died on board. After his sudden death, Wellstone was replaced on the ballot by former Vice PresidentWalter Mondale, who lost by a slim margin to Coleman. Wellstone's sons, David and Mark, were not on the flight, and until 2018 co-chaired theWellstone Action nonprofit organization (now named Re:Power) in honor of their parents.
Wellstone was born in Washington, D.C., the second son ofUkrainian Jewish immigrants Leon and Minnie Wellstone. His father changed the family name from Wexelstein after encounteringantisemitism during the 1930s.[1] Raised inArlington, Virginia, Wellstone attendedWakefield High School andYorktown High School, graduating in 1962.[2]
Wellstone attended theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) on awrestling scholarship. In college he was an undefeatedAtlantic Coast Conference wrestling champion. After his freshman year, he marriedSheila Ison Wellstone. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts inpolitical science in 1965, and was electedPhi Beta Kappa.[3][4] In May 1969, Wellstone earned a PhD inpolitical science from UNC. His doctoral dissertation on the roots of black militancy was titledBlack Militants in the Ghetto: Why They Believe in Violence.[2]
In August 1969, Wellstone accepted atenure-track position atCarleton College inNorthfield, Minnesota, where he taught political science until his election to the Senate in 1990.[2] During the 1970s and 1980s, he also begancommunity organizing, working with the working poor and other politically disenfranchised communities. He founded the Organization for a Better Rice County, a group consisting mainly of single parents onwelfare. The organization advocated for public housing, affordable health care, improvedpublic education, freeschool lunches, and a publicly fundedday care center. In 1978, he published his first book,How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grassroots Organizer, chronicling his work with the organization.[2]
Wellstone was arrested twice during this period forcivil disobedience.[5] TheFederal Bureau of Investigation began a case file on him after his May 1970 arrest for protesting theVietnam War at the Federal Office Building inMinneapolis. In 1984 Wellstone was arrested again, fortrespassing during aforeclosure protest at a bank.[5]
Wellstone extended his activism to the Minnesota labor movement. In the summer of 1985, he walked thepicket line with strikingP-9ers duringa labor dispute at theHormel Meat Packing plant inAustin, Minnesota. TheMinnesota National Guard was called in during the strike to ensure that Hormel could hire permanent replacement workers.[2]
The trustees of Carleton College briefly fired Wellstone in the late 1970s for his activism and lack of academic publications. After his students held asit-in, the trustees rehired him and gave him tenure. Wellstone remains the youngest tenured faculty member in Carleton's history.[6]
Wellstone first sought public office in 1982. He received the Democratic nomination forMinnesota State Auditor after an impassioned speech at the state convention.[2] In the general election he received 45% of the vote, losing toRepublican incumbent, and future Minnesota governor,Arne Carlson.[2] Wellstone remained active inDemocratic politics in the mid-1980s. He served as an elected committeeman for theDemocratic National Committee in 1984, and in 1986 began a second campaign for State Auditor before dropping out to tend his mother's failing health.[2] In 1988, Wellstone chairedJesse Jackson'scampaign for the presidency in Minnesota. After the primary, he co-chairedMichael Dukakis'scampaign in the state.[2]
In1990, Wellstone ran for the U.S. Senate against incumbentRudy Boschwitz, beginning the race as a serious underdog. He narrowly won the election despite being outspent 7 to 1. Wellstone played off his underdog image with quirky, humorous ads created by political consultantBill Hillsman, including "Fast Paul"[7] and "Looking for Rudy",[8] apastiche of the 1989Michael Moore documentaryRoger & Me. Boschwitz was also hurt by a letter his supporters wrote, on campaign stationery, to members of the Minnesota Jewish community days before the election, accusing Wellstone of being a "bad Jew" for marrying aGentile and not raising his children in the Jewish faith. (Boschwitz, like Wellstone, is Jewish.) Wellstone's reply, widely broadcast on Minnesota television, was "He has a problem with Christians, then." Boschwitz was the only incumbent U.S. senator not to be reelected that year.
Wellstone defeated Boschwitz again in1996. During that campaign, Boschwitz ran ads accusing Wellstone of being "embarrassingly liberal" and calling him "Senator Welfare". He accused Wellstone of supportingflag burning, a move some believe backfired. Before that accusation, the race was close, but Wellstone beat Boschwitz by nine points despite again being significantly outspent. Reform Party candidateDean Barkley received 7% of the vote.
Wellstone's upset victory in 1990 and reelection in 1996 were also credited to agrassroots campaign that inspired college students, poor people, and minorities to get involved in politics, many for the first time. In 1990, the number of young people involved in the campaign was so notable that shortly after the election,Walter Mondale told Wellstone that "the kids won it for you". Wellstone also spent much of his Senate career working with theHmong community in Minnesota, which had not previously been much involved in American politics, and with theveterans community—serving on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, successfully campaigning foratomic veterans to receive compensation from the federal government, and for increased spending on health care for veterans.[9][10][11]
In 2002, Wellstone campaigned for reelection to a third term despite an earlier campaign pledge to serve only two. HisRepublican opponent wasNorm Coleman, a two-term mayor ofSt. Paul and former Democrat. Earlier that year, Wellstone announced he had a mild form ofmultiple sclerosis, causing the limp he had believed was an old wrestling injury.
Wellstone was in a line of center-left senators from theDemocratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). The first three,Hubert Humphrey,Eugene McCarthy, andWalter Mondale, were all prominent in the national Democratic Party. Shortly after joining the Senate, South Carolina SenatorFritz Hollings told Wellstone, "You remind me of Hubert Humphrey. You talk too much."[12]
Shortly after his reelection to the Senate in 1996, Wellstone began contemplating a run for his party's nomination for President of the United States in2000. In May 1997, he embarked on a cross-country speaking and listening tour dubbed "The Children's Tour." It took him through rural areas ofMississippi andAppalachia and theinner cities ofMinneapolis, Chicago, Los Angeles, andBaltimore. He intended to retrace the stepsRobert F. Kennedy took during a similar tour in 1966, and to highlight the fact that conditions had improved slightly for African-Americans since thecivil rights movement, but not much for poor whites despite their dependency on food stamps, government jobs (military) and the massive federal investment in their regions, especially Appalachia.
In 1998, Wellstone formed anexploratory committee and a leadershipPAC, the Progressive Politics Network, that paid for his travels toIowa andNew Hampshire, two early primary states in the nomination process. He spoke beforeorganized labor and local Democrats, using the slogan "I represent the democratic wing of the Democratic Party." Vermont governorHoward Dean later incorporated that phrase into his stump speech in the2004 US presidential election.[2]
On January 9, 1999, Wellstone called a press conference at theMinnesota State Capitol at which he said he lacked the stamina necessary for a national campaign, citing chronic back problems he ascribed to an old wrestling injury. His pain was later diagnosed asmultiple sclerosis. He thereafter endorsed former SenatorBill Bradley ofNew Jersey, the only Democratic candidate to challenge Vice PresidentAl Gore.[2]
Wellstone was known for his work for peace, the environment, labor, and health care; he also joined his wife Sheila to support the rights of victims ofdomestic violence. He made the issue of mental illness a central focus in his career.[13] He was a supporter of immigration to the U.S.[14] He opposed the firstGulf War in 1991 and, in the months before his death, spoke out against the government's threats to go to war with Iraq again. He was strongly supported by groups such asAmericans for Democratic Action, theAFL–CIO, theSierra Club, theAmerican Civil Liberties Union, andPeople for the American Way. He was often called "the conscience of the Senate".[15][16]
In 1996, Wellstone voted for theDefense of Marriage Act.[17] He later asked his supporters to educate him on the issue and by 2001, when he wrote his autobiography,Conscience of a Liberal, Wellstone said that he had made a mistake.
Wellstone was one of only eight senators to vote against repealing theGlass–Steagall Act in 1999.[18]
After voting against thecongressional authorization for thewar in Iraq on October 11, 2002, amid a tight election, Wellstone is reportedly told his wife, "I just cost myself the election". Vice PresidentDick Cheney reportedly told him, "If you vote against the war in Iraq, the Bush administration will do whatever is necessary to get you. There will be severe ramifications for you and the state of Minnesota."[19]
In the 2002 campaign, theGreen Party ran a candidate against Wellstone, a move some Greens opposed. The party's 2000 vice-presidential nominee,Winona LaDuke, called Wellstone "a champion of the vast majority of our issues".[20] Some liberals criticized the Green Party's decision to oppose Wellstone.[21]
Wellstone was the author of the "Wellstone Amendment" to theMcCain-Feingold Bill forcampaign finance reform, in what came to be known as theBipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The law, including the Wellstone Amendment, was called unconstitutional by groups and individuals of various political perspectives, including theCalifornia Democratic Party, theNational Rifle Association of America, and Republican SenatorMitch McConnell, the Senate majoritywhip.[22][23] On December 10, 2003, the Supreme Court upheld McCain-Feingold's key provisions, including the Wellstone Amendment. Wellstone called McCain-Feingold's protection of "advocacy" groups a "loophole" allowing "special interests" to run last-minute election ads. He pushed an amendment to extend McCain-Feingold's ban on last-minute ads to nonprofits like "the NRA, theSierra Club, theChristian Coalition, and others". Under the Wellstone Amendment, these organizations could advertise using only money raised under strict "hard money" limits—no more than $5,000 per individual.[24]
In January 2010, inCitizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the McCain-Feingold Act and removed restrictions on the NRA's and others' ability to campaign at election time.
Wellstone voted against authorizing the use of force before thePersian Gulf War on January 12, 1991 (the vote was 52–47 in favor).[25] He also voted against the use of force before theIraq War on October 11, 2002 (the vote was 77–23 in favor).[26] Wellstone was one of 11 senators to vote against both the 1991 and 2002 resolutions. The others were also all Democrats:Daniel Akaka of Hawaii;Jeff Bingaman ofNew Mexico;Robert Byrd ofWest Virginia;Kent Conrad ofNorth Dakota;Daniel Inouye of Hawaii;Ted Kennedy ofMassachusetts;Patrick Leahy ofVermont;Carl Levin ofMichigan;Barbara Mikulski ofMaryland; andPaul Sarbanes of Maryland.
Wellstone supported requests for military action by PresidentBill Clinton, includingOperation Restore Hope in Somalia (1992),Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti (1994),Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995),Operation Desert Fox in Iraq (1998), andOperation Allied Force inYugoslavia (1999). On July 1, 1994, during the 100-dayRwandan genocide from April 6 to mid-July 1994, Wellstone authored an amendment to the 1995 defense appropriations bill.[27]
On October 25, 2002, Wellstone, along with seven others, died in an airplane crash in northeastern Minnesota, at 10:22 a.m. He was 58 years old. The other victims were his wife, Sheila; one of his three children, Marcia; the pilots, Richard Conry and Michael Guess;[28] and campaign staffers Mary McEvoy, Tom Lapic and Will McLaughlin.[29] Autopsy reports determined that five of the passengers likely died instantly upon impact, while three others—McEvoy, Lapic, and McLaughlin—showed signs of smoke inhalation from the ensuing fire.[30][31] The airplane was en route toEveleth, where Wellstone was to attend the funeral of Martin Rukavina, a steelworker whose sonTom Rukavina served in theMinnesota House of Representatives. Wellstone decided to go to the funeral instead of a Minneapolis rally and fundraiser attended by Mondale and fellow SenatorTed Kennedy. He was to debate Norm Coleman inDuluth, Minnesota, that night.
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TheBeechcraft King Air A100 plane crashed into dense forest about two miles from theEveleth airport, while operating underinstrument flight rules. It had noflight data recorders.Autopsytoxicology results on both pilots were negative for drug or alcohol use.Icing, though widely reported on in following days, was considered and eventually rejected as a significant factor in the crash. TheNational Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) judged that while cloud cover might have prevented the flight crew from seeing the airport, icing did not affect the plane's performance during its descent.[32]
TheFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which initially sent agents to help recover debris, investigated possible foul play in the crash. After a few days, it determined that the crash was accidental, but only after following several criminal leads involving death threats. Wellstone had been receiving death threats since he took office; the FBI tapped his phone to locate the callers. Documents about the FBI's involvement in investigating Wellstone's death were not publicly released until 2010.[33] Government documents also indicated that the FBI had been following Wellstone before he became a senator, and included records dating as far back as his arrest at a 1970 antiwar protest.[34]
TheNational Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) later determined that the crash's likely cause was "the flight crew's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which led to an aerodynamicstall from which they did not recover".[35] The last two radar readings detected the plane traveling at or just below its predicted stall speed given conditions at the time.[35] Aviation experts speculated the pilots might have lost situational awareness because they were lost and looking for the airport.[36] They had been off course for several minutes and "clicked on" the runway lights,[35] something not usually done in good visibility.[citation needed] There was a problem with the airport'sVHF omnidirectional range (VOR) navigational beacon. According to Minnesota Public Radio:
The day after the crash, FAA pilots tested the VOR. The inspection pilots reported to the NTSB that when they flew the approach without their automatic pilot engaged, the VOR repeatedly brought them about a mile south of the airport. In one written statement an FAA pilot told the NTSB that the signal guided him 1 to 2 miles left or south of the runway. That's the same direction Wellstone's plane was heading when it crashed.[36]
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Other pilots at the charter company told NTSB that pilot Richard Conry andfirst officer (co-pilot) Michael Guess had both displayed below-average flying skills. Conry had a well-known tendency to allow copilots to take over all aircraft functions as if they were the sole pilot. After the crash, three copilots told of occasions on which they had to take control of the aircraft away from Conry.[35] After one of those incidents, three days before the crash, the copilot (not Guess) had urged Conry to retire.[31] In a post-accident interview, Conry's longtime friend and fellow aviator Timothy Cooney said that he had last spoken to Conry in June 2001 and had expressed concerns about difficulties he had flying King Airs as late as April of that year, 18 months before the crash.[37] Significant discrepancies were also found in the captain's flight logs in the course of the post-accident investigation, indicating he had probably greatly exaggerated his flying experience, most of which had been accrued before a 9–10 year hiatus from flying due to a fraud conviction and poor eyesight.[35] He underwentLASIK surgery, but it had improved his vision to only 20/50 or 20/30.[38] FAA regulations required Conry to wear corrective lenses,[39] but his wife and Cooney said Conry did not do so after the surgery.[40] The coroner who examined his body was unable to determine whether Conry was wearing contact lenses at the time of the crash.[41]
Coworkers described Guess as having had to be consistently reminded to keep his hand on the throttle and maintain airspeed during approaches.[35] He had two previous piloting jobs, one with Skydive Hutchinson as a pilot (1988–1989), and another withNorthwest Airlines as a trainee instructor (1999), and was dismissed from both for lack of ability.[42] Conry's widow told the NTSB that her husband told her "the other pilots thought Guess was not a good pilot".[43]
Wellstone died just 11 days before hispotential reelection in a crucial race to maintain Democratic control of the Senate. Campaigning halted on all sides. Minnesota law required that his name be stricken from the ballot, to be replaced by a candidate chosen by the party. The DFL selected former Vice PresidentWalter Mondale.
The memorial service for Wellstone and the other victims of the crash was held inWilliams Arena at theUniversity of Minnesota and broadcast live on national TV.[44] The lengthy service was dotted with political speeches, open advocacy on political issues, and a giant beach ball batted around the crowd in the style of a beach party. Many high-profile politicians attended the memorial, including former PresidentBill Clinton, former Vice PresidentAl Gore, and more than half the U.S. Senate. The White House offered to send Vice PresidentDick Cheney to the service, but the Wellstone family declined.[45]
Some criticized the service for having an inappropriate tone[46][47] and resembling a "pep rally"[48] or "partisan foot-stomp".[49] Wellstone campaign manager Jeff Blodgett noted after the event that it had not been scripted and apologized to people who were offended or surprised.[46] In his 2003 bookLies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them,Al Franken wrote that "reasonable people of good will were genuinely offended" but argued that conservative media figures exploited outrage at the event for political gain. At the time of writing, Franken was a comedian and liberal commentator. Five years later, in 2008, Franken was elected tothe Senate seat once held by Wellstone.
Minnesota GovernorJesse Ventura, who had stated his preference to appoint a Democrat to serve the remainder of Wellstone's term, was "disgusted"[46] by the event, walking out and later threatening to appoint "an ordinary citizen" instead.[50] On November 4, the day before the election, Ventura appointed state planning commissionerDean Barkley, founder and chair of Ventura'sIndependence Party of Minnesota, to serve the remaining two months of Wellstone's term; he had run against Wellstone in 1996.[51] Coleman received 49.5% of the vote, defeating Mondale. In 2008, he was narrowly defeated (by 312 votes) in his bid for reelection by Franken, in a three-way race that included Barkley.
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TheAFL–CIO has created the AFL–CIO Senator Paul Wellstone Award for supporters of the rights of labor unions. Presidential candidateHoward Dean and California state senatorJohn Burton both received the first award in January 2003. In 2004, theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill dedicated the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Memorial Garden as a tribute to the couple, both graduates of the university. Also in 2004,Mason Jennings released "The Ballad of Paul and Sheila", a song memorializing the Wellstones, on his albumUse Your Voice.
Near the site of the plane crash, a memorial to the Wellstones was dedicated on September 25, 2005. His distinctive green bus was present, as well as hundreds of supporters and loved ones. The six-acre site, off Bodas Road near Eveleth, is a tribute to Wellstone's life and career, and to his family members and staff who died in the crash. The memorial is about three-quarters of a mile from the crash site, which is on private land. It is divided into three parts: the Legacy Trail, the Commemorative Circle, and the Crash Site Narrative Space.[52]
Paul and Sheila Wellstone are buried atLakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.[53] A memorial sculpture nearBde Maka Ska marks their grave sites. Visitors sometimes follow the Jewish custom[54] of placing small stones on the boulder marking the family plot or on the individual markers.Wellstone Action, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, trains citizens and potential candidates with a progressive agenda.[55][56][57][58]
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In 2007, formerFirst LadyRosalynn Carter joined David Wellstone to push Congress to pass legislation regardingmental health insurance.[59] Wellstone and Carter worked to pass thePaul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which requires equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses when policies include both types of coverage; both testified about the bill before a House subcommittee in 2007.[59] David said of his father, "Although he was passionate on many issues, there was not another issue that surpassed this in terms of his passion."[59] Because Paul Wellstone's brother had had mental illness, Wellstone had fought for changes in mental health and insurance laws when he reached the Senate.[59] The St. Paul branch of the Emily Program eating disorder clinic has a Wellstone Room in its adult inpatient unit. The room is dedicated to Paul and Sheila Wellstone for their work on treating eating disorders.[60]
On March 5, 2008, theHouse of Representatives passed H.R. 1424, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007, by a vote of 268–148. It was sponsored by RepresentativesPatrick Kennedy andJim Ramstad, both of whom are recovering alcoholics. The narrower Senate bill S. 558, passed earlier, was introduced by Kennedy's father, SenatorEdward Kennedy,Pete Domenici, andMike Enzi.[61]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Paul Wellstone (incumbent) | 1,098,430 | 50.32% | −0.12% | |
| Republican | Rudy Boschwitz | 901,194 | 41.28% | −6.53% | |
| Reform | Dean Barkley | 152,328 | 6.98% | n/a | |
| Majority | 197,236 | 9.04% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Paul Wellstone | 911,999 | 50.44% | +9% | |
| Republican | Rudy Boschwitz (incumbent) | 864,375 | 47.81% | −10% | |
| Majority | 47,624 | 2.63% | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Arne Carlson (incumbent) | 932,925 | 54.81% | +3.0% | |
| Democratic | Paul Wellstone | 769,254 | 45.19% | −1.5% | |
| Majority | 10% | ||||
Wexelstein wellstone.
| U.S. Senate | ||
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| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Minnesota 1991–2002 Served alongside:David Durenberger,Rod Grams,Mark Dayton | Succeeded by |
| Class 1 |  | |
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| Class 2 | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
