WELLSTONE, PAUL

WELLSTONE, PAUL (David; 1944–2002), U.S. senator. Wellstone was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Arlington, Va.; his parents were Russian immigrants. He earned his degrees at the University of North Carolina (B.A. 1965, Ph.D. 1969) and taught political science at Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., from 1969 to 1989. He ran unsuccessfully for Minnesota state auditor in 1982. He was the co-chair of the Minnesota Democratic presidential primary campaign of Jesse Jackson in 1988. In 1990 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating an incumbent Republican, rudy boschwitz , marking the first time in American history that two self-identified Jews had run for the Senate against one another. Boschwitz, itching for a rematch, passed up an open seat in 1994 and ran against Wellstone in 1996, but Wellstone again prevailed, this time handily. While running for reelection again against another Jew, Norman Coleman, Wellstone was killed in a plane crash, along with his wife, daughter, and five other people in October 2002. Wellstone was an activist in progressive causes from the time he was an undergraduate. He marched for civil rights for African Americans and wrote his doctoral thesis on black militancy. At Carleton, he demonstrated against the Vietnam War and supported other causes, such as ending South African apartheid and providing legal assistance to the poor. In the Senate, Wellstone took active liberal positions on social and political issues, including human rights, health care, social security, worker safety, the environment, abortion, gun control, and campaign finance reform. He sought to strengthen government health, welfare, and education programs and increase their funding. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993; he opposed both the Gulf War of 1991 and the Iraq War of 2003, whose authorization he voted against in one of his last Senate votes in October 2002 – the only Democrat in a close race for reelection to do so. He was a loving and critical supporter of Israel, and vigorously opposed Israeli settlements. He enthusiastically supported the peace process. He also was sharply critical of the Palestinian Authority and its failure to conclude peace and accept moves toward a two-state solution. A Wellstone legacy is that he brooked no double standards on human rights and peace and was widely respected for the integrity of his views and for his personal decency. This integrity and decency made him a respected senator, one who could work with the arch right winger Senator Helms on religious freedom and with Conservative Senator Domenici on mental health strengthening government support. Wellstone had also grown as a Jew, visiting Israel for the first time in 1991, studying Judaism with Rabbi Bernard Raskas of St. Paul, who secured a commitment from Wellstone to study a Jewish text for at least 15 minutes daily. Wellstone felt comfortable in Jewish Progressive circles. He and his wife had not raised their children as Jews, yet their three children   felt themselves to be Jews, an example of what Daniel Elazar calls the permeability of identity boundaries in contemporary America. Former vice president Walter Mondale was coaxed into running for Wellstone's seat in the last days before the election; Norman Coleman defeated him. (Drew Silver (2nd ed.)