Political training center graduates winning elections around country
Six years after his death on the eve of his bid for re-election, Sen. Paul Wellstone's political influence is still being felt nationwide.
On Nov. 4, the names of 247 graduates of training programs offered by Wellstone Action, a St. Paul-based national center for training and leadership development, appeared on ballots around the country. Of that number, 97 were elected or re-elected - a 40 percent success rate, according to the organization.
"This is a fitting legacy," said Elana Wolowitz, Wellstone Action's communication director. "He would be relieved and glad that there were thousands of candidates and organizers who were taking his particular approach to politics and developing leadership, and standing up to represent their communities."
Though more than half of its graduates were not elected, Wolowitz said the organization primarily measures its success not by the sheer numbers of winners, but by the hurdles its graduates are able to overcome.
"Our goal is to train progressive leaders to step and represent their communities," she said. "That often means that they're running in very tough districts, often first-time candidates who have to earn name recognition. Sometimes they have to run more than once to win."
Of the 97 Wellstone Action alumni elected last week - 17 more Wellstone success stories than the 80 in 2006 - 34 were from Minnesota. Four were elected or re-elected to the U.S. House, including Rep. Tim Walz, DFL-Minn., who won re-election from the 1st District; Glenn Nye, the newly elected Democratic representative from Virginia; Rep. John Hall, the freshman Democratic representative from New York (and a founding member of the 1970s rock group Orleans), who won re-election to a second term; and Marko Liias, newly elected to the U.S. House as a Democrat from Washington state.
Of the other victorious Minnesota Wellstone alumni, 24 were elected or re-elected to the state House; one to the state Senate; three to school boards; three to town or city councils; one to the county commission; and one, John Gunvalson, to become soil and water supervisor in Gonvick, Minn.
Other notable Wellstone alumni who won political victories last week were Denise Juneau, the first Native American elected to statewide office in Montana as the state superintendent of schools, and Ohio state Rep. Armond Budish, who was re-elected to a second term and is expected to become the new speaker of the House.
"We're starting to see a tipping point," Jeff Blodgett, executive director Wellstone Action, said in a press statement this week. "We've trained a critical mass of candidates and community organizers in every state in the country, and that leadership development has resulted in progressive candidates for every level of government running and winning campaigns ‘the Wellstone way.'"
Wolowitz pointed out that the list of candidates tracked by Wellstone Action is not exhaustive.
"It's hard to pin down exactly, because the numbers are the result of self-reporting and the best information we could find," she said. She estimated that about 300 candidates have won election or re-election since Wellstone Action began offering its training camps in 2003; more than 20,000 people have participated in those camps.
She said that although Wellstone Action is nonpartisan, most participants lean to the left politically.
"We're open to all comers," she said. "But we certainly do get a progressive bent - people who are interested in change."
She said Wellstone Action has also trained Republicans, as well as members of the Green and Independence parties.
Wellstone Action is known for its "Camp Wellstone" weekend training sessions, in which potential candidates and political organizers learn the basics: "The training is focused on the steps a candidate needs to win election," Wolowitz said. "We teach them how to talk to voters at the door, how to raise funds, how to manage a crisis, how to respond to media and the press, how to write stump speeches, how to be able to effectively tell voters their values, what they care about, why they're running for office.
"In general, our training for both candidates and campaign workers emphasizes direct contact with voters - that's the bulk of what we train our candidates to do. We teach people to campaign in (Wellstone's) method."
Wellstone, a former professor at Carleton College who was first elected to the Senate in 1990, was known for his grass-roots campaign style and his ability to motivate college students, the poor and minorities to get involved in politics.
Wellstone Action was formed after the senator and his wife, Sheila, were killed in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 election, and Wolowitz said its staff is always aware of what Wellstone would think about the organization's work.
"We knew what we were doing was training people to stand on his shoulders, just as he sat on the shoulders of those who came before him," she said. "Most think of him as a U.S. senator, but we remember him as a teacher and community organizer. We think our role as trainers and the organization really fits with that legacy."
