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verfasst von Bob, 25.10.2002, 22:56

-->Sen. Paul Wellstone Is Killed
In Minnesota Plane Crash

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP

EVELETH, Minn. -- Paul Wellstone, an outspoken liberal Democrat locked in a re-election battle considered key to control of the Senate, was killed in a plane crash Friday in northern Minnesota along with his wife, daughter and five others.

The twin-engine private plane went down in freezing rain and light snow near the Eveleth-Virginia Municipal Airport, about 175 miles north of Minneapolis. The cause of the crash was under investigation.

Mr. Wellstone, a 58-year-old former college professor and one of the foremost liberals on Capitol Hill, was on his way to the funeral of the father of a state lawmaker.

All eight people aboard the 11-seat King Air A-100 were killed, said Greg Martin, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration. Campaign officials confirmed the victims included Mr. Wellstone's wife, Sheila, and daughter, Marcia.

His death scrambles the political landscape in Minnesota and the nation. The midterm elections on Nov. 5 will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. Before Friday, Democrats held control by a single seat.

Mr. Wellstone had been enmeshed in a tough re-election race against Republican Norm Coleman, a former mayor of St. Paul and President Bush's choice to challenge the two-term incumbent. A Coleman spokesman, Ben Whitney, said:"Our prayers are with the Wellstone family. That's all I'm going to say."

Democrats nationally had once considered Mr. Wellstone the party's most endangered incumbent, but had been cheered in recent days by his improved position in Minnesota opinion polls. To the surprise of many observers, Mr. Wellstone rose in the polls after becoming the only Democratic senator in a contested race to vote against President Bush's request for authority to use military force against Iraq.
The death of Sen. Wellstone puts the balance of power in the Senate further in doubt.

If Mr. Coleman goes on to win the seat, that would markedly improve the GOP's chance of erasing the Democrats' 50-49 edge in the Senate. Minnesota law allows for the governor to fill a vacant Senate seat, but allows for the party to appoint a replacement in the event of a death of a nominee.

State Democratic Party spokesman Bill Amberg said he was confident the party would be allowed to offer a replacement. Speculation turned immediately to possibilities, including Skip Humphrey, 60, son of former vice president Hubert Humphrey, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, 74.

Two years ago, Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan received more votes than Republican Sen. John Ashcroft even though he had been killed in a plane crash three weeks before the election; Mr. Carnahan's widow, Jean Carnahan, was appointed to the Senate seat after the election and is now up for election in her own right.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said flags at state buildings would be flown at half-staff through Nov. 5. The governor, appearing before reporters, wouldn't talk about what happens now in the Senate race -- except to say that he won't under any circumstances appoint himself to the U.S. Senate.

In Texas, Mr. Bush called Mr. Wellstone"a man of deep convictions."

"He was a plainspoken fellow who did his best for his state and for his country," the president said."May the good Lord bless those who grieve."

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) called Mr. Wellstone the"soul of the Senate. He was one of the most noble and courageous men I have ever known."

Before running for office, Mr. Wellstone was a professor and community organizer who fused the two passions in a course he taught at Carleton College in Northfield called"Social Movements and Grassroots Organizing."

He stunned the political establishment by defeating Republican Sen. Rudy Boschwitz with a longshot bid for office in 1990. Afterward, left-leaning Mother Jones magazine called him"the first 1960s radical elected to the U.S. Senate."

Mr. Wellstone had pledged to stay for no more than two terms, but last year, he announced he would be running again. In February, he announced he had been diagnosed with a mild form of multiple sclerosis but he said it wouldn't stop his campaign.

"For me, no stress would be stress," Mr. Wellstone said at the time."The stress of this campaign is what I want to do, to be perfectly honest. And the stress of being a senator is what I want to do."

State Democratic Party chairman Mike Erlandson said Mr. Wellstone for years had been"the heartbeat" of the party."He took pride every day in fighting on behalf of the people of Minnesota," he said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan both called Mr. Wellstone a champion of peace.

"He was a profoundly decent man, a man of principle, a man of conscience," Mr. Annan said.

"Wellstone stood up for the little guy," added AFL-CIO President John Sweeney."He was tireless and unapologetic for championing the rights of working men and women -- even when he stood alone, and he often did."

Mr. Wellstone also had two sons, David and Mark, and six grandchildren.

The King Air turboprop was made by Raytheon Corp. with Pratt & Whitney engines, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The owner was listed as Beech Transportation Inc. of Eden Prairie, Minn., and the plane had been leased by Mr. Wellstone.

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• Alert! - Bob, 25.10.2002, 20:23
  • Re: it can be a true accident - - BillyGoatGruff, 25.10.2002, 21:37
    • stay at the forefront of unbiased information with bob - Bob, 25.10.2002, 22:56