News Highlights

Two new Minnesota legislators are MSU graduates

2006-04-09

By Mark Fischenich, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN]

Photo by Christina Paolucci, Rochester Post-Bulletin

Due to confusion about vote totals involving two counties, Andy Welti thought for a time late on election night that he had suffered a narrow defeat. As it turned out, the recent Minnesota State University graduate had pulled off the biggest upset in the state.

Andy Welti wasn't an easy guy to reach after about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 — the point when it became obvious that the recent Minnesota State University graduate had performed a huge political upset.

Welti — at the age of 24 — had won a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives. He had knocked off a four-term incumbent lawmaker, something that's difficult even for a more experienced candidate to do. And he won in Olmsted County even though he was a Democrat, a feat no DFLer had accomplished since the 1970s — well before Welti was born.

After his 570-vote victory over state Rep. Bill Kuisle, R-Rochester, the calls and e-mails flooded in. At first it was congratulatory messages.

"Then it was the interest groups, lobbyists," Welti said.

It's not surprising that people wanted to talk to Welti, DFL-Plainview. It was an extraordinary victory over Kuisle, the chairman of the Transportation Finance Committee, a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee and an assistant majority leader of the House. Welti's win even earned mention in a Wall Street Journal column about the few bright spots for Democrats in the Nov. 2 election.

Welti, a substitute teacher and construction worker, will be the youngest member of the Legislature. He joins just a handful of lawmakers over the years — a group which includes former Congressman Tim Penny of Waseca — who essentially went straight from college political science classes to running for a legislative seat.

Welti concedes that some longtime Democratic activists in Olmsted County clearly didn't really expect him to win. Not that they weren't happy to have young Andy running for the seat. The party hadn't been able to scrounge up any candidate against Kuisle in 2000.

"I told them from the beginning — I wasn't running to lose, I was running to win," said Welti, a farm kid who graduated from MSU last year.

A couple of legislative districts away, MSU alum Pat Garofalo was winning a less-dramatic, less-shocking victory in Farmington — at least in comparison to Welti. Garofalo was a Republican running in a rural/suburban district that clearly leans toward the GOP.

Still, Garofalo is just 33 years old and — like Welti — was making his first run for elected office of any kind.

His recipe for victory includes at least one ingredient he picked up in Mankato while earning a law enforcement and political science degree.

Garofalo remembers sitting in an elections class taught by political science Prof. Joe Kunkel. The class included Democrats who had been volunteering in the upstart congressional campaign of political unknown David Minge. It also included Republicans who were supporting Minge's opponent for the open congressional seat, Cal Ludeman, a well-known former Republican candidate for governor.

"A Democrat in the class said, 'There's polling in this district that shows this is really close,'" Garofalo recalled, saying the Republican students just laughed.

In the end, Minge won a shocking upset and Garofalo learned a lesson.

"If you get out and you work hard and you talk to voters and share your ideas, you have a chance to win," he said. "Minnesotans value hard work."

Garofalo, a network engineer with the Allianz Life Insurance Co., worked hard and ended up as the only freshman Republican to receive more votes in his district than the party's top gun on the ballot, President Bush.

Maybe more surprising than his victory totals were his endorsements. Garofalo was endorsed by unions representing teachers and public employees, groups which largely favor Democrats in their endorsements.

Kunkel, who remembers Garofalo as a student who liked a good argument, wasn't surprised.

"He's a sharp guy. He's a moderate," Kunkel said. "I don't think he's really a marcher in that conservative army."

Garofalo — and not just for old times' sake — begs to differ.

Yes, he got endorsements from AFSCME and Education Minnesota. But he stressed that he was also endorsed by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life.

"People might think I'm a moderate Republican," he said. "I consider myself a traditional conservative Republican."

Welti, who learned valuable lessons in mounting a successful grass-roots campaign while interning on the Paul Wellstone re-election campaign in 2002, will have to be equally careful about his public image.

Although he's a Democrat, his message while knocking on more than 12,000 doors is that he would be a lawmaker who listens to all of his constituents and is eager to work with Republicans and Democrats to get things done in St. Paul.

To win again in Rochester and Olmsted County, Welti probably will need to be seen as a maverick Democrat.

"I will follow my word, and I will work across party lines," Welti said. "And I expect to be re-elected in two years."

One obstacle will be the loss of his campaign manager — his 20-year-old brother Adam — who Welti credits for his victory but who is planning to join the Peace Corps prior to 2006.

Kunkel enjoys seeing former students show up in political stories but admits that he was surprised to see Welti's tale end the way it did.

But it's not a unique story, Kunkel said, mentioning Penny as a prime example. Every once in a while a young, energetic, unmarried idealist without the responsibilities that come with a career and family will shock a seemingly safe incumbent.

"I think it was a lot of hard work," Kunkel said. "And Andy is a very earnest, straight-arrow type guy — very nice. And I think he made a good impression on the electorate."

Kunkel wonders if the 26 freshmen lawmakers who show up in St. Paul in early January can bring a new approach to public service that's aimed at compromise and achievement — as opposed to partisanship and gridlock. When young people are elected, citizens can dream about a political process that works better.

"Part of this is hope — a new generation of political leadership coming up," Kunkel said. "This is where our leaders come from."

Garofalo said the legislative newcomers, who have already met in St. Paul, are hopeful as well.

"Already there's a bipartisan agreement that the focus ought to be on solving the state's problems," he said, "not scoring points on the other party."

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