Little-known facts about Minnesota legislators’ hobbies, obsessions, professions and chance encounters

The 2010 session of the Minnesota Legislature that will convene next week doesn’t figure to be long on comity and fellow-feeling. From here, in fact, it sounds more like an interminable party where attendance is compulsory and everyone is assured of having a lousy time.

So before the bloodletting and backbiting commence in earnest, let us pause to appreciate the sheer diversity and common humanity of the 201 souls who occupy the Legislature - or at least have a laugh over some of the odder, more distinctive line items on their personal resumes.

In addition to 27 lawyers, 34 educators and 13 farmers, the current Legislature boasts one former professional chef, an ultralight plane pilot, a former member of the stage crew for “A Prairie Home Companion” and a yoga instructor.

Not to mention a classically trained pianist, a member of the 1980 Italian Olympic hockey team, a second-degree Shotokan karate black belt, a former commander of an ICBM crew - and a transportation officer for a county coroner who provides hearses and drivers for funerals.

The 201 members of the 2009-2010 Minnesota Legislature are indeed a diverse and sometimes surprising group. Consider:

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, and three of his brothers were boosted into a tree at Hampton University in Virginia in 1962 by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., with whom Marty’s father - the prominent theologian Martin Marty - worked closely.

Rep. Kate Knuth, DFL-New Brighton, is fond of the color orange. One could even say obsessively fond: She has worn the color daily for the last 10 years, and yes, her senior prom dress was orange.

There are a handful of “onlies” on the Legislature: Sen. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, is the only ultralight airplane pilot. Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, is the only legislator with a second-degree black belt in Shotokan karate. Rep. Julie Bunn, DFL-Lake Elmo, is the only yoga instructor, and Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, is the only chiropractor (and, according to highly placed sources, is known to give free chiropractic adjustments in his office).

In a previous life, Sen. Chris Gerlach, R-Apple Valley, was the commander of an ICBM crew at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

Rep. Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, and his wife, Laura, live in - and are restoring - a house that F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald once rented. The Fitzgeralds were evicted after a party at which everyone got so drunk that they didn’t realize the house’s pipes had frozen; the home’s crooked main staircase is a result of that long-ago debauchery.

Dean is also known in the House GOP Caucus as “hands down, the funniest legislator;” a caucus employee calls his impressions of his legislative colleagues, both Republicans and DFLers, uncanny - and he door-knocks during campaign season on a scooter.

Two DFL House members, Rep. Joe Atkins of Inver Grove Heights and Larry Hosch of St. Joseph, have similar distinctions: Atkins, at 21, was the youngest person ever elected to a school board in Minnesota, and Hosch was elected mayor of St. Joseph, also at 21.

A number of legislators have interesting family connections: The 11th great-grandfather of Rep. Al Doty, DFL-Royalton, arrived in the United States as a passenger on the Mayflower. Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, and Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, share more than aspirations to the governor’s office: Seifert’s first cousin is married to Kelliher’s second cousin, and the two shared a bipartisan dance together at a family wedding when they were children.

Seifert’s wife Traci is an international rolle bolle champion; she and her team placed first last summer in the novice division of a world tournament. (Rolle bolle is a Belgian game that’s related to horseshoes, tenpin bowling and bocce ball; participants attempt to roll a “bolle,” a 6- to 8-inch disk made of hard wood or rubber, down a 42-foot alley and land it as close to a stake as possible.)

(One more thing about Seifert: He is known to love fruit-flavored pop. “Orange, strawberry, grape - he loves ‘em,” a co-worker confides.)

Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, is the uncle of former Minnesota first lady Terry Ventura. Tim Saxhaug, who plays bass in the nationally known bluegrass band Trampled by Turtles, is the son of Sen. Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids. Ron Simon, the father of Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-St. Louis Park, was a sports agent who once represented, among others, Minnesota Twins Paul Molitor, Brad Radke and Kent Hrbek.

The great-grandfather of Rep. Jeremy Kalin, DFL-North Branch, was Sig Harris, who quarterbacked the first Little Brown Jug Gopher football team in 1903. The twin daughters of Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, are competitive Irish dancers, and Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, is the daughter of Robert Sheran, a former chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul, was the first female legislator to wear pants on the Minnesota Senate floor in 1993. She and her husband, former state Rep. Andy Dawkins, once lived in separate houses because they represented different legislative districts.

Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, played professional hockey in Italy for 16 years and was a member of the 1980 Italian Olympic hockey team. Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, is a transportation officer for the Crow Wing County coroner; he owns a company that provides hearses and drivers for funerals.

In the “quirks and hobbies” category: Rep. Leon Lillie, DFL-North St. Paul, bicycled across the United States last summer. Rep. Bud Nornes, R-Fergus Falls, collects and restores old radios.

Rep. Patti Fritz, DFL-Faribault, and her husband, James, travel the country in a 1929 Ford street rod, and they attend the Buddy Holly street rod show every year in Clear Lake, Iowa, where Holly’s plane crashed on Feb. 3, 1959.

Sen. Rick Olseen, DFL-Harris, and his family are “Rentheads” - avid fans of the Broadway musical “Rent” who follow the touring production across the country. Olseen has seen the show dozens of times, and his daughters have seen it at least 60 times.

Rep. Michael Beard, R-Shakopee, is a licensed pilot who buys derelict planes and restores them to make them airworthy. Rep. Bev Scalze, DFL-Little Canada, is a respected wildlife artist who won the 1991 Minnesota Trout and Salmon Habitat Stamp Contest.

Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, is known for doing impressions, particularly Jesse Ventura, Bob Dylan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Wellstone. Sen. Lisa Fobbe, DFL-Zimmerman, is a classically trained pianist who particularly enjoys playing Beethoven, and Sen. Ken Kelash, DFL-Minneapolis, hosts family sauerkraut-making parties.

Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, is a Renaissance woman when it comes to hobbies: In addition to placing second in her age bracket in last year’s Twin Cities marathon, she has won cooking ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair, including third prize in 2004 for ethnic baking with her recipe for biscotti.

And in the “past lives” division: Rep. Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis, is a former professional chef. Rep. Steve Gottwalt, R-St. Cloud, spent two years working on the stage crew of “A Prairie Home Companion” in the 1980s.

Sen. Richard Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, once had a “personal encounter” with Groucho Marx; Rep. Rob Eastlund, R-Isanti, was a lineman on the Gopher football team. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, played hockey for current Gopher coach Don Lucia at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.