As Dems Work For Victory, Wellstone Action Puts Progressives In Motion

Six years ago today, the Beechcraft King Air A100 carrying DFL U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, Sheila Wellstone, Marcia Wellstone, staffers Tom Lapic and Mary McEvoy, driver Will McLaughlin, copilot Michael Guess and pilot Richard Conry, crashed near the Eveleth airport on the Iron Range, leaving behind a huge void in Minnesota’s progressive political traditions. The progressive training organization Wellstone Action! started up soon thereafter, intended to provide a leftie counterweight to the well-funded chain of conservative grassroots operations, most prominently the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

Wellstone Action! has successfully provided training for winning progressive candidates at the flagship Camp Wellstone workshops around the country; at least 80 Camp Wellstone alums ran for public office in Minnesota during the 2006 cycle. From Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (DFL-MN1), to more than half the freshman DFL ranks of the state Legislature (including Marsha Swails (DFL-Woodbury), Kim Norton (DFL-Rochester), Robin Brown (DFL-Austin), David Bly (DFL-Northfield), Sandy Wollschlager (DFL-Cannon Falls)), Wellstone Action! candidate training surely helped these Dems pull off victories in districts well-known for leaning Republican. (Of the 80, 36 won office from school boards on up). The majority of trained candidates run for state legislatures.

With more than 20,000 trained so far, their programs for progressives run the whole gamut, from candidates to campaign workers to citizen activists, in particular working with students, labor groups, low-income communities, and Native American leaders. Nationwide training for congressional candidates appears to be working as well, or at least creating competitive races: one prominent example is Darcy Burner (darcyburner.com) in Washington’s Eighth Congressional District (check out the 60-second intro), a local business owner who, like many trainees, was relatively new to politics. Reflecting Paul Wellstone’s approach, the program attracts people who aren’t typical insider party types, giving them more skill and direction. Trainings are non-partisan; people from all parties including Greens and Independents have participated, even the occasional Republican with a progressive bent.

Wellstone Action! doesn’t officially support the many candidates they’ve helped train - more than 300 are running in this cycle - but they keep in touch and also work with Progressive Majority, which is directed more towards getting progressives to win during the election cycle. Another major electoral partner is the Energy Action Coalition’s Power Vote, which organizes students for a clean energy economy, green jobs and securing the climate; Power Vote hopes to get 1 million votes for addressing climate change and green jobs.

After the election, it will be time to pivot to policy work. Communications director/senior trainer Elana Wolowitz told PIM that 2009 will be a “huge year” for progressives; even if someone more receptive is in the White House, lots of people will need training to start moving progressive politics into policy. It’s no time for complacency, progressives feel, because otherwise the usual lobbyists will still end up guiding the debate. As part of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) background, community organizing has been brought to the fore this cycle; major policy areas including green collar jobs and universal health care will become top issues.

After five years in action, they’ll continue to adapt to the changing political landscape. The group won’t focus narrowly on particular issues, but rather work with partner organizations to see what areas dovetail with their needs. Wolowitz says that refining training programs, switching from the election cycle over to civil engagement will really help build a “critical mass” of organizing. During the Republican National Convention, GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s jabs about community organizing “galvanized a lot of community organizers” across the political spectrum, she says.

Here’s a map of alumni running this year. With over 300 graduates running for office across the country, they’re excited to see how many alums find their way into serving in government on Election Day.

Photo source: Wellstone Action!

After The Crash, Aftershocks And Parity For Mental Health

Doug Grow’s column today in MinnPost reviews the supercharged, incomparable Wellstone memorial at Williams Arena. Former St. Paul mayor George Latimer reflects on whether he should have interrupted Rick Kahn’s abruptly electoral speech, which conservatives united around and seized upon, likely giving U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) the stylistic edge he needed to slip into victory. This PIM writer recalls the raw emotions sloshing around the Arena, as many in the audience first booed former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, then laughed about booing him (This writer could see from the simulcast in the adjacent volleyball arena that Lott grinned and seemed to take it all in relative good humor).

Latimer tells Grow, “Should I tackle him? Pull the plug? I never would have dreamed of cutting off Paul’s sons. But I did think of cutting him (Kahn) off. But I don’t regret not doing that. Any impulse I had to stop him, I held back because you could see this was a kid in total grief and you had to have respect for that… What I did was feeble.” And thus did passing judgment on such a uniquely loaded event worked out for the GOP — who’ve never had to host such a difficult observance.

Finally, it brought things full circle when U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN3), in one of his final Beltway efforts, spearheaded getting the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 into the financial bailout package, championed also by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI1) and Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Pete Domenici (R-NM). This bill ensures that insurance plans can’t put arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on mental health and addiction coverage, as millions of American families suffer from chemical dependency and mental illnesses.

No Responses to “As Dems Work For Victory, Wellstone Action Puts Progressives In Motion”

1. Liberty11 Says:
   October 25th, 2008 at 10:06 pm

   TEN COMPELLING REASONS TO VOTE MCCAIN
   1. CHECK ON LIBERAL CONGRESS. The only way the liberal Congress will be checked at all is if McCain gets elected. Otherwise Pelosi, Dodd, and Frank(the very same people who contributed greatly to the current crisis through resisting reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and pushing

2. Holly Cairns Says:
   October 29th, 2008 at 8:18 am

   These are my observations, and I believe I’m on target. Ten reasons to vote for Obama:

   1. Obama’s a good man and has strong family values.

   2. Obama’s for regulating the market. Democrats have been arguing for more regulation to protect the middle class since time began. What have Repubicans been arguing for? Against regulation. We need to protect the middle class, so we can all be prosperous.

   3. Obama is an honest man, and Obama is NOT one of the Keating 5. McCain IS a member of the Keating 5. These men were responsible for a recent, national, political scandal which was part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. McCain carries a lot of baggage, one of them being he was criticized by the courts for using bad judgement. Being a part of this scandal is not becoming.

   4. Obama will bring us back to being fiscally responsible, and then our prosperity will grow. The last time our national budget wasn’t a huge deficit? A Democrat was at the helm. Bill Clinton. Although, Obama and Bill aren’t the same kind of person– I believe Obama is truly honest, hard working, and not “slick.” He’s savvy, but not “slick.”

   5. Obama will represent us well in the world, and will bring us back to being a strong, respected, world leader. I believe he’d like us to use force if we absolutely need it (and there are good times to use force), but otherwise rely on diplomatic means to negociate with the world.

   6. Obama will encourage the use of alternative energy, and help us to move away from our reliance on oil. Not just foreign oil, but all oil.

   7. Our current health care system is a disaster. Costs are astronomical. I’m glad Obama is looking for ways to improve our system. After all, where would this country be if we didn’t question bad systems? Out with the King, we said. Why do we have to keep what is broken? We don’t. Vote Obama.

   8. Obama listens to Americans, and will work on solutions for helping hard working American families. Time and time again I’ve heard him say “Folks are telling me…” and I know he’s working on an action plan that will deny greed, but still encourage growth.

   9. Obama has solid values and is bold, hard working, and smart.

   10. Obama is competent, and his back-up (Biden) is, too. Obama may have taken financing from companies we now wish were regulated, but McCain took money AND tried to pass a bill to regulate these companies. The regulation bill didn’t pass, and there was no regulation. But McCain still took the money… we need someone who will get things done, instead of point out how it can go better. Right?

   Vote Obama!

3. Holly Cairns Says:
   October 29th, 2008 at 8:35 am

   Fun to see Paul and Sheila on the bus. I live in Northfield and that bus used to sit on main street sometimes, perhaps to be fixed.

   I still get nervous when I see Sheila. She was our high school librarian and I used the back door to “escape” into the halls (yes, skip out of class, oops). Sheila didn’t miss a thing and boy was I sorry. No library for two weeks, even though my class was doing a major project. She was a tough cookie.

   After years of thinking, I believe Paul appealed to the masses by using humor, humilty, and common sense. He got away with using the label “liberal.” He appealed to the middle, while quietly doing what is best for the little guy. Do you agree? Or am I way off, here? He defined liberal in his own terms, and then moved on to make waves… What does it mean to be progressive, now, BTW?

   I worry about Paul’s sons. What’s that Mark up to? What a fireball of energy he was. The world needs those kinds of people to move mountains.

4. Liberty11 Says:
   October 29th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

   Fair Enough. I guess we’re even.
   Whoever wins, let’s hope they can solve this nation’s problems and will exercise common sense.

5. Holly Cairns Says:
   November 11th, 2008 at 8:12 am

   Hi, what’s going on in CD3? Go to the CD3 dfl website and you’ll see “Tonka Progressives” “Progressives on the Prairie” “Bloomington Progressives”… The Progressive party was/ is a registered party in Minnesota. As far as I know, the last to run for President as a Progressive was no other than Eugene McCarthy in 1988.

   I hope those CD3 progressive groups intend to work within and enhance the DFL. Votes for third party candidates often end up helping to elect the candidate least liked by the third party voter.

   I think we need to have a consistently used definition for “Progressive.” Besides the possibility of Progressives splitting off from the DFL, I’m also worried about people thinking progressive means “further to the left than liberal” or “socialist”. Ambiguity can lead to smear tactics… just look to Rochester and Wojcik’s race for city council to see what I mean.

   For Republicans Sandy Wollschlager’s race might have been the bellwhether, but for Dems we might look to Wojcik’s race to see what is coming.

   I’ve started a blog called progressivenature dot com if you’d like to help define “progressive.” I think we can do this so it appeals to the middle and still captures the nature of progressivism. You don’t need a password and user ID to post comments, but please see the guidelines page first.