Paul Wellstone

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Paul Wellstone

Paul David Wellstone (born July 21, 1944 in Washington, DC , † October 25, 2002 in Eveleth , Minnesota ) was an American politician and member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party . From 1991 to 2002 he was a member of the US Senate . He was killed in a plane crash eleven days before the 2002 congressional elections .

Life

Childhood and youth

Paul Wellstone was born in Washington DC to Leon Wellstone (originally Wexelstein) and Misha "Minnie" Danashevsky. The father, the son of Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants, came to the United States in 1914. The mother, also of Jewish-Ukrainian descent, grew up in a working-class family in New York City , where they also met. They married and moved to Boston , where Stephan, Wellstone's older brother, was born in 1936.

Wellstone grew up in the Washington suburb of Arlington , Virginia . Despite their background, the Wellstones were not practicing Jews. At the age of eleven there was a first turning point in Wellstone's life. His brother Stephan suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be treated in a psychiatric clinic , which placed a heavy burden on the family financially and in family life. During this time, Wellstone developed from an exemplary student to a problem case, which was noticeable through poor school grades and its aggressiveness. Stephan was slow to recover from his mental disorder. At the age of 15 Wellstone discovered wrestling for himself, where he could quickly achieve success with his small and strong figure. Before long, his academic performance improved and he graduated from Yorktown High School.

Study and job

Paul Wellstone studied political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where he received a scholarship as a wrestler. For financial reasons, he decided to finish his studies within three years. In the first year he made it as a wrestler unbeaten in the final tournament of the Atlantic Coast Conference , in which he lost. In the second year he was again able to qualify undefeated for the tournament and win it. After the final success, he ended his wrestling career. In 1965 he achieved his bachelor's degree and was accepted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society . He received his doctorate four years later. His dissertation was entitled: "Black Militants in the Ghetto: Why They Believe in Violence" . In it, Wellstone thematized the situation and moods of African Americans in the ghettos of Durham , North Carolina . He then accepted an offer from Carleton College in Northfield , Minnesota , where he had been a professor of political science since the fall of 1969. Wellstone was barely older than his students when he started work, which encouraged the establishment of a close relationship. He also differed from other professors in his teaching style and his extremely critical attitude towards college administration. He did not follow the usual “ publish or perish ” approach and only published one article in the first two years. Instead, he organized local and regional protests, particularly campaigning for the rural poor. With the OBRC ( Organization for a Better Rice County ), created in June 1972 , he gained recognition for their unusual tactics and actions within the state. In November 1973, the faculty management initiated an early evaluation of his work, with the result that his contract at Carleton College was not to be extended. This met with great protest within the student body. It emerged that the college's regulations had been violated during the evaluation and the dismissal was unsustainable. A subsequent assessment of his performance by two independent professors came to an extremely positive result, so that Wellstone was already in the fifth year of the contract for life. In the period that followed, he retained his opinion and, in addition to his teaching activities, organized protests - some of which were illegal - and joined the Democratic Farmer Labor Party . In 1978 he published his first book: How the Rural Poor Got Power: Narrative of a Grassroots Organizer . In it he described his work as a political activist to improve the situation of the lower class in rural Minnesota with a focus on the OBRC .

Private life

Paul Wellstone married Sheila Ison, who came from a middle-class Christian family in Kentucky , in the fall of 1963 . Her family had moved to Washington DC during their teenage years. They met on a beach in Ocean City , Maryland . They had a daughter and two sons.

Political career

His political career began in the early 1980s. In 1982 he was elected to the Minnesota State Auditor , but was defeated by Arne Carlson . In 1988 he worked as the campaign manager for presidential candidate Jesse Jackson . In 1990 he ran for the US Senate congressional elections. Although he was considered an outsider in the run-up to the elections compared to long-time Senator Rudy Boschwitz , he was able to win the election by a narrow margin and became a Senator in the US Congress on January 3, 1991. In 1996 Wellstone was able to prevail again against Boschwitz in the congressional elections. After winning the election, he started talking as a candidate for the 2000 presidential election. In January 1999, however, he announced that he would not run. As a reason he named an old injury from wrestling. It later emerged that he was actually suffering from primary progressive multiple sclerosis .

Wellstone was considered a liberal and progressive politician from the left wing of the DFL. In addition to improvements in the health system and education, he also campaigned for the interests of the low-income population and immigrants and worked as a peace activist. So he voted against the Gulf War in 1991 and Wellstone later campaigned against the Iraq war prepared by George W. Bush ("I don't think the government has so far convincing arguments for a military strike against Iraq") and voted on October 10, 2002 in the US Senate against the Iraq war resolution. Contrary to initial fears that this attitude could cost him the lead in the polls, the opposite effect occurred, so that his re-election was considered certain.

death

Gravestone on the family grave

Wellstone was killed in a plane crash days before the 2002 congressional elections. A debate with challenger Norm Coleman in Duluth had been scheduled for October 26, 2002 . Wellstone wanted to campaign in the Iron Range the day before and attend the funeral of Tom Rukavina 's father , a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives and confidante of Wellstone. In the morning, the weather was wet and cold, with warnings of freezing rain and snowfall. However, the initial concerns of the pilot and Wellstones were allayed, so that at around 9:30 a.m. the aircraft took off from Holman Field (St. Paul Downtown Airport) in St. Paul in the direction of Eveleth.

At around 10:22 a.m. on October 25, 2002, the Beechcraft King Air A100 crashed a good three kilometers from Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport on approach into a forest area. In addition to Wellstone, his wife, daughter, three assistants and the two pilots died. Difficult weather conditions were initially assumed to be the cause of the accident. Both pilots tested negative for alcohol and other drugs . In the course of the investigations, doubts arose as to the qualifications of the pilot or co-pilot, who had been piloting the aircraft at the time of the crash. The flight ability of both was below average. The National Transportation Safety Board's investigations found the cause of the crash to be pilot error. The aircraft had fallen below demolition speed due to the speed reduction . The resulting stall were the pilots did not catch in time more.

In the course of the investigation, irregularities in the airport's radio beacon were also found. During an attempted approach the following day, a significant deviation was observed: the bearing signal directed the aircraft to a point one to two miles south of the airport, which also corresponded to the flight path of the aircraft involved in the accident.

Around 20,000 people attended the memorial service, which was broadcast on national television, including many top politicians from the Democratic Party. Wellstone was buried in Lakewood Cemetery , Minneapolis. Former presidential candidate Walter Mondale was nominated as a substitute candidate, but lost the election to Republican Norm Coleman .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aircraft Accident Report (PDF) Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  2. ↑ Four months later, questions remain in Wellstone crash probe . Minnesota Public Radio March 3, 2003; Retrieved June 13, 2013
  3. ^ NTSB Cites Flight Crew Failures in Crash of Airplane Carrying Senator Wellstone . National Transportation Safety Board , Nov. 18, 2013; Retrieved June 13, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Wellstone, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wellstone, Paul David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 21, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Washington, DC
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 2002
Place of death Eveleth , Minnesota