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Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002

Wellstone, D-Minn., his wife, Sheila, and their daughter, Marcia, were aboard the chartered twin-engine craft along with three campaign workers, the pilot and co-pilot when it went down in Minnesota's Iron Range.

Broadcast reports indicated Wellstone was en route to a friend's funeral in Eveleth, a town of about 4,000 that is home to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. Wellstone was scheduled to debate his Republican challenger, former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, in Duluth, about 60 miles away, Friday night.

The Beech King Air turboprop crashed just east of Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport, about 180 miles northeast of Minneapolis. The National Weather Service said light snow and freezing drizzle were falling at the time.

The plane, which lost radio contact at 10:20 a.m. EDT, had been leased to the Wellstone campaign by Beech Transportation Inc. of Eden Prairie, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were en route.

Wellstone, who had been seeking a third term in the Senate after saying he would not run again, was a leftist in the tradition of such Democrat luminaries as Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy. He was locked in a tight race against Coleman, who berated Wellstone for his opposition to authorizing force against Iraq and for reneging on his pledge to spend only two terms in the Senate.

The latest poll conducted by the leftist Minneapolis Star Tribune, conducted Oct. 11-16, gave Wellstone a 6-point lead over Coleman with 12 percent undecided and an error rate of 3 percent. Other polls indicated a closer race, with some showing Coleman ahead.

Control of Senate at Stake

With Gov. Jesse Ventura an independent, it was unclear who would be appointed to serve out the remainder of Wellstone's term and whether that would send the Democrat-controlled Senate into reorganization when the body reconvenes.

Ventura announced he would not appoint himself. Speculation centered around former Vice President Walter Mondale, a failed former presidential nominee.

The death sent the Minnesota Secretary of State's office scrambling to determine whether Wellstone's name should remain on the ballot.

If a Senate nominee in Minnesota dies, his political party can select a replacement candidate no later than four days before the general election, CNN reported.

Paul David Wellstone was born to Russian immigrant parents July 21, 1944. Raised in Arlington, Va., Wellstone went to Wakefield and Yorktown high schools before attending the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he was a champion wrestler.

He earned his Ph.D. in political science in 1969 and held a teaching position at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., where he stayed for 21 years.

Wellstone, a father of three, married Sheila Ison in 1963. They also leave two sons and six grandchildren.

Wellstone was the underdog and built a formidable volunteer campaign staff in 1990, when he defeated incumbent Republican Rudy Boschwitz in an upset. He was known for traversing the state in what became his trademark green bus.

'1960s Radical'

The left-wing Mother Jones magazine called him "the first 1960s radical elected to the U.S. Senate."

During his first Senate term, Wellstone fought for parental leave and affordable health care. He supported increasing the minimum wage and preventing corporations from raiding pension funds. In his second term, Wellstone turned his attention to children.

"Our prayers and heartfelt sympathy goes to their sons, their loved ones, their friends and the people of Minnesota," President Bush said. "Paul Wellstone was a man of deep convictions. He was a plainspoken fellow who did his best for his state and for his country. May the good Lord bless those who grieve."

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who was at Wellstone's campaign office in St. Paul, said: "Today, the nation lost its most passionate advocate for fairness and justice for all. He had an intense passion and enormous ability to reach out, touch and improve the lives of the people he served so brilliantly."

"All Minnesotans and all Americans today are saddened by this tragedy. One of the most powerful voices for justice in this country has been silenced," said Minnesota's junior Sen. Mark Dayton.

Though colleagues rushed to praise Wellstone, he had a darker side as well. He recently incited a Democrat mob to attack a cameraman, and an organization of admitted Democrat socialists has plotted an effort to bring out-of-state students to Minnesota to exploit the state's lax election laws for him.

Ron Brown, Mel Carnahan ...

The crash was eerily reminiscent of the one that killed former Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan in 2000 just three weeks before that fraud-plagued election. Carnahan was elected posthumously over the then-incumbent Republican senator, Attorney General John Ashcroft. Missouri's Democrat governor chose Carnahan's widow to fill the seat for two years and is now running for election.

The next most recent plane crash of a prominent political figure: controversial Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, who was on an Air Force jet that crashed into a mountain in Croatia, killing all 35 aboard.

Copyright 2002 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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