Ventura May Tap Independent to Wellstone's Seat
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura was so offended by the political rally that evolved out of a memorial service to honor the late Sen. Paul Wellstone that he said he will try to appoint an independent instead of a Democrat to fill out Wellstone's term until a replacement is certified.
Click to Watch Video of Ventura
"I feel used. I feel violated and duped over the fact that that turned into nothing more than a political rally ... I think the Democrats should hang their heads in shame," Ventura told Fox News on Wednesday.
The Minnesota GOP was also very disturbed by the political nature of the memorial, and demanded that local media give the party equal time by covering a rally being held Wednesday night at a restaurant in St. Paul.
"It was billed as a memorial service, but it was a planned political rally. And [Democrats] can conduct themselves in any fashion they want, I am not commenting on that. I am simply asking for equal time from all the television stations and radio stations," said Ron Eibensteiner, head of the state GOP.
Bill Walsh, deputy executive director for the party, said that all four of the local network affiliates covered the entire memorial, which lasted from 7:30 to 11 p.m. Public radio and AM radio stations also carried the event.
He said that the party was not looking for the channels to air the entire two-hour rally on Wednesday night, but to broadcast a portion of the event and perhaps a rally that was expected to feature President Bush on the weekend.
It would be "a great equal time gesture," Walsh said.
Prior to Tuesday night's event, Ventura said that he was leaning toward appointing a member of Wellstone's party to replace Wellstone, who died in a plane crash on Friday while headed to a funeral for the father of a state senator. Wellstone's wife, daughter, three campaign workers and the two pilots on board the plane were all killed in the crash in northern Minnesota.
Wellstone, a Democrat, was in the midst of a tough re-election battle against former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, a Republican, in a race that could be a critical contest in determining control of the U.S. Senate.
Ventura said he was disgusted that some of the nearly 20,000 people who attended the memorial service booed Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who traveled to Minneapolis along with many other senators, Republican and Democrat, to attend the memorial service.
Lott too left the service early. Ventura said his wife was so upset by the political quality of the speeches that she left the arena on the University of Minnesota campus in tears.
Ventura said he was particularly disturbed by a speech by one of Wellstone's closest friends, Rick Kahn, in which Kahn said to the crowd, "I'm begging you to help us win this Senate election for Paul Wellstone."
"I wanted to hear the sons. But Rick Kahn's [speech], I found his so offensive to me as an independent, or to anyone who is not necessarily going to vote for Sen. Wellstone who still respects him and came to pay their respects," Ventura said. "It drove the first lady to tears."
Packing up boxes on Wednesday, a representative from Wellstone's campaign said that it was unfortunate that the event took on a political tone, but added that the campaign had no control over the speakers, who were selected by family members of the deceased.
With less than a week left until the Nov. 5 election, the Minnesota race is certain to get continuing coverage, and the Democratic Party was again planning to make news on Wednesday night when former Vice President Walter Mondale received the Democratic nomination to run in Wellstone's place.
Mondale, 74, made clear on Wednesday that he would accept the nomination if it were ratified in a party vote that evening.
"It is with a heavy heart but a great hope for the future that I will pick up the campaign where Paul Wellstone left off," Mondale wrote in a letter to the party. "Paul cannot be replaced. No one can. But his passion for Minnesotans and their needs can inspire us to continue the work he began."
Wellstone's son David asked Mondale, who served in the Senate representing Missouri from 1964-1976 to run in Wellstone's place, saying his father would have wanted it.
Polls appearing in Wednesday's Minneapolis Star Tribune showed Mondale leading Coleman 47 percent to 39 percent, a wider margin than separated Wellstone and Mondale. The poll of 639 adults conducted on Monday, the same day Republicans conducted an internal poll that was criticized by Democrats as callous, found that 98 percent of Minnesotans recognized Mondale's name and 66 percent had a favorable image of him, including several Republicans surveyed.
"I think many people out there -- simply because of who Paul Wellstone was, the legacy Wellstone left, even if they don't agree with Wellstone's politics -- will vote for the Democrat," said former Clinton Labor Secretary and failed Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Robert Reich.
But Republicans say Mondale, who hasn't been in elected office since 1981, is too removed and too much an old school liberal to represent the state.
Coleman began airing a positive-themed television ad on Wednesday that did not address his new opponent directly, but did say, "I have to ask you to look with me into the future. This election is about hope, and opportunity; about jobs ... It's about changing the tone in Washington."
But before anyone can change the tone, several legal maneuvers will likely be set in motion. Already, Democrats have said they are challenging Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer's decisions to count supplemental ballots that will be handed out at the polls by hand and to require absentee voters who want to change their vote to go to local polling stations.
The state Supreme Court was scheduled to hear the case on Thursday. Elections officials in Hennepin and Ramsey counties said they would disregard Kiffmeyer's decision and mail new absentee ballots to anyone who asked. Republican lawyers filed papers in response, arguing that mailing new absentee ballots will further delay voting and create the risk of people being denied the right to vote.
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