Senator, family killed in Minnesota plane crash
Minnesota's Paul Wellstone, one of the Senate's most Liberal members, died earlier today in a plane crash that also took the lives of his wife, Sheila, his daughter, Marcia, three members of Wellstone's staff, and two pilots. Wellstone is survived by his two sons, David and Mark.
The plane went down in a wooded area about seven miles east of Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport. Officials said bad weather was reported in the area, and the last contact with the plane was at 10:20 a.m. when the plane was about two miles from the Eveleth airport.
Wellstone held a key Democratic seat in the U.S. Senate and had been criss-crossing the state in a tough re-election campaign against former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman.
The plane, a twin-engine turboprop King Air manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft, took off from Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie, a southwestern suburb of Minneapolis. He was scheduled to attend a funeral in the northeast, followed by a campaign stop in Duluth.
Wellstone, 58, won his Senate seat in 1990, the only challenger that year to unseat an incumbent.
The son of Russian immigrants, Wellstone was raised in Arlington, Virginia, and was a champion wrestler at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he earned both a bachelor's degree and a doctorate.
Wellstone was a champion of health care coverage expansion and environmental concerns, and was considered by many to be one of the Senate's most liberal members.
Outside of the obvious tragedy of the plane crash, the political implications are huge. Republican Norm Coleman will now take Wellstone's seat in a walkover, increasing the likelihood of a Republican-controlled Senate. I'm sure this is not the way Coleman would have wanted to achieve victory. This tragedy will only increase the stakes for other hotly contested Senate seats, including one right here in Texas.
Some facts about Paul Wellstone:
He's 5-feet-5. He grew up in Virginia. He was a championship wrestler in school. He got married at age 19. He and Sheila will soon celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary. He first moved to Minnesota in 1969. He has a bad back. He was recently diagnosed with a mild form of multiple sclerosis. He walks with a limp.
He has three children and six grandchildren. He taught political science at Carleton College in Northfield and initially was almost fired for being too focused on activism. He holds the push-up record at the Capitol Police gym: 91 in one minute. He is breaking his promise not to run for a third term.
His father, Leon, was a Russian immigrant who spoke 10 languages, yet in the American South of the 1950s, "he just didn't fit in," Wellstone recounts in his book, "Conscience of a Liberal."
His mother, Minnie, was the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants and worked in the cafeteria at his junior high school — a source of great embarrassment to her teen-age son.
Now, to honor the memory of his late mother, Wellstone makes a point of meeting the cafeteria workers at every school he visits.
Wellstone was known for his strong Liberal convictions and well as for being a heck of a nice guy. He first gained attention as a professor from tiny Carleton College in Northfield, MN who ran a populist campaign for Senate. Wellstone became the only challenger to upset an incumbent that year. He relished his outsider status, but quickly learned how to play the insider's game for his constituents.
His 1990 election was a huge upset, the underfunded professor beating two-term Republican Sen. Rudy Boschwitz.
His entry to Washington went badly. Wellstone's opposition to the Persian Gulf War and an ill-advised antiwar event at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial sent his popularity plunging. He had troubles inside the Senate, too, after saying he had long "despised and detested" Helms.
There was no political honeymoon, and a shaken Wellstone was quickly forced to decide: Would he remain an outside agitator or work to become a legislator?
"I think Paul recognized that he had to go back and repair relationships because of the way he started, for example, with Senator Helms," Dayton said.
Since then, "They've actually collaborated on several matters."
Said Wellstone: "If people don't like you here, then they're looking for every reason to vote no when they see your name next to an amendment."
In 1996 Wellstone was re-elected, defeating Boschwitz in a rematch.
There are liberal lines Wellstone won't cross. He's blunt about supporting the war in Afghanistan. "We were attacked on our own soil, and thousands of people were killed. End of story."
He supports civil liberties, but OK'd more government surveillance to find terrorists. He has spoken at gay rights rallies, but he voted to ban gay marriage.
Some liberals are miffed. Yet many Minnesotans value Wellstone's strong alternative voice.
"He's one of the few congressmen who don't seem to be manipulated by business interests," said Joan Meierotto, a retired nurse in Afton. "He seems to be real honest, and has cast a lot of courageous votes."
One of my favorite Wellstone stories is from back in 1991, shortly after he took office. Upon meeting President Bush, he immediately began to harangue him on an issue I've long since forgotten about. Shortly after shaking Wellstone's hand, Bush turned to one of his aides and said, "Who IS that chickenshit?" Wellstone did have a way of making an impression, and rarely left people feeling ambivalent about him.
Wellstone was also renowned for his devotion to his Jewish roots. Minnesota is a state with a very small Jewish population, but his religious beliefs were never an issue for Minnesota voters.
Stephen Silberfarb, executive Jewish Community Relations Council, said he felt “unbelievable shock.”
“There was a source of pride here to have a Jewish senator in a state without a large Jewish population,” Silberfarb said.
“He was kind of a walking history in many ways of the Jewish experience. He was a son of Russian immigrants. That generation wanted their kids to be president, he grew up to be a U.S. Senator. In Many ways he was the realization of hopes and dreams, not just Jewish immigrants but of immigrants. That is a real success story.”
Having grown up in northern Minnesota, and having gone to college in the Twin Cities, I am very familiar with Paul Wellstone and his legacy. When he was first elected in 1990, he pledged to be a one-term Senator. Time and politics changed that, and he was able to overcome reneging on his pledge. He may well have been able to pull this election out; he'd pulled himself off the mat before.
"I'm a senator for the rivers and lakes and forests, not the oil companies!" Wellstone tells a crowd in Farmington. Let the drug makers and insurance companies blanket Minnesota with campaign cash, he shouts. "I'll match that green (bus) with their green."
His fiery presence has inspired liberals, annoyed conservatives and amazed voters.
"I've seen Paul Wellstone work a crowd, and he doesn't stop, he's an incredible ball of energy. It's amazing to see," said Chris Gilbert, a political scientist at Gustavus Adolphus College. "Anyone who's had concerns about Paul Wellstone's health, that's not going to be a problem."
Wellstone was a fighter, a politician who was passionate about issues. He cared deeply about the people he represented and genuinely loved what he was doing. For Sen. Wellstone, it was never merely about re-election. In an increasingly Conservative and pusillanimous Senate, Wellstone was always the fly in the ointment. Paul Wellstone was truly a strong and committed representative of the Progressive cause. I'll miss him, and the US Senate will be poorer for his absence.
