What makes them run: Kelley stresses schools, health care–and electability

Steve Kelley, the former Senate Education Committee chair who left state government following his unsuccessful run for the DFL gubernatorial endorsement in 2006, says he’ll keep his options open if he doesn’t win the 2010 DFL endorsement next spring. PIM talked with Kelley last Thursday.

Steve Kelley/vitals

Born: 1953, Minnetonka, Minnesota; Education: B.A., Williams College (political economy), J.D., Columbia University Law School; Occupation: Attorney; Electoral history: Served in Minnesota House, 1993-1996; served in Minnesota Senate, 1997-2006; sought DFL endorsement for governor, 2006; lost primary race for DFL nomination for Minnesota Attorney General, 2006; Campaign website.

PIM: Why are you running for governor?

Steve Kelley: During the time I was at the Humphrey Institute, I realized I still had a passion for solving the challenges that the state faces across a range of issues. Education–I realized that even though I was out of my role as education chair, I was still deeply committed to working on that, and worked on it while I was at the Humphrey. And I learned more about climate change and the things we needed to do on that. Health care and our infrastructure continue to be issues.

So one, I was realizing I still had a passion for working on those issues. And the second  is that I’m deeply concerned about making sure the Democrats actually win this election, and I’m afraid that if we’re not careful, we’ll run a candidate who’s essentially going to repeat the same mistake we made in the last three elections. So those are the two main reasons I’m running.

PIM: What are the two or three most important challenges facing the state, and what would you do to solve them?

Kelley: One is education. We’ve got to do something to ensure that all of our kids have the opportunity to successfully graduate from college. And that means we have to start much earlier, with early-childhood education, things like that. So I’d put education at the top.

I’m hoping that the federal government will step up on health care. But if they don’t, obviously health care is a key issue. We’ve got to help families through difficult times in terms of getting health care. But we also have to help businesses be efficient in their employee benefits and things like that. People shouldn’t lose their health care when they lose their job or when they start a business if we’re to have the kind of dynamic economy we ought to have. I think reforming health care is clearly important.

And then to do those things, we need to solve the state’s budget deficit. That means looking hard at a variety of solutions. Those would be the top three.

PIM: How many campaign events have you attended so far?

Kelley: [laughs] Let’s see. It’s been seven months. Call it 60-75.

PIM: What are the main messages you’re hearing from Minnesotans as you get out and campaign around the state?

Kelley: I hear people want to do something about health care, both access and cost. I hear concern about jobs and the need to get people back to work. In greater Minnesota, although some farmers are doing really well, dairy farmers and other animal farmers are facing serious challenges with high feed costs and low prices. I hear about that.

I hear about education. The cutbacks in schools that come from the state’s failure to fund education. Those would be the main ones.

PIM: If you don’t receive your party’s endorsement, will you run in the primary?

Kelley: I have decided to keep my options open. I haven’t committed to running. It depends on what happens at the convention.

PIM: Who, or what, would you say are the most important influences on your life and outlook?

Kelley: Hmm. Certainly, growing up in the ’60s and hearing the urging from people to work to change the system has stuck with me. Trying to make our country work better by fighting within the system. So [I was influenced by] watching people like Hubert Humphrey and Fritz Mondale, who, despite concerns at the time, clearly in retrospect had progressive goals in mind for Minnesota and for the country.

And then my own–I was a wrestler in high school, and I learned the value of determination. I wrestled heavyweight, and I wasn’t necessarily one of the biggest ones, but I found that determination mattered a lot in terms of winning. I think that’s affected my outlook on dealing with challenging times by continuing to work hard and battle through obstacles.

And then I was an active reader, so I think books helped open my eyes to a wider world. I was always interested in science, science fiction, a variety of things. I tended to think of the future a lot, and that’s probably affected my desire to try to affect what we’re doing today to create a better future.

PIM: What’s the first thing you can remember wanting to be when you grew up?

Kelley: I think, like in fifth or sixth grade, I wrote a paper about wanting to be a physicist. At that time there were a lot of fascinating discoveries in atomic energy, and there was just a lot of cool stuff happening at that time. I think I was affected by the attention being paid to physics–the race to the moon and things like that.