Immediately after Paul Wellstone’s death, most observers predicted a Democratic victory amidst a wave of sympathy for the fallen Senator. The politicized Memorial Service changed all that.  Instead of an easy victory, Walter Mondale lost a close election.  

While politically unwise, the Memorial captured Wellstone’s spirit.  Our populist Senator often refused to play it safe.  Most incumbent members of Congress work to build invincible seats.  They amass huge war chests of money and carefully craft an image of Senatorial respectability and restraint.   Wellstone rejected this path and even after two terms, his seat was always in danger. 

When he took the oath of office to begin his Senate career, Wellstone brought a cassette tape filled with the eloquent pleas of Minnesota citizens who opposed the first Persian Gulf war at town meetings across the state.  Immediately after the ceremony in the Senate chambers, he handed the tape to Vice-President Quayle who had presided over the event.  It was an outrageous, almost disrespectful thing to do.  President George Bush, Sr. was mortified and scorned, “Who is this chicken-_____?!”  By the conventions of the Senate, Wellstone should have been more reverent.   But opposing that war was more important to him than Senatorial decorum.

            Over the years, Wellstone shed a bit of that early confrontational spirit.  His subsequent campaigns had more money and fewer quirky ads than his first campaign.  In office, he came to love the institution of the Senate.  He learned to work with some Republicans.  Where he once proclaimed his hatred for Jesse Helms, he came to build a friendship with North Carolina’s arch-conservative. 

            Yet Senator Wellstone also kept his populist edge.  No Senator voted against President Bush more often.  No Senator challenged the interests of powerful economic interests more consistently.  No Senator’s voting record was more liberal.

            In 1996, Paul Wellstone was the only Senator up for re-election to vote against a very popular welfare reform bill.  In his second term, Wellstone was the only Senator to vote against a bill that would make it harder to declare bankruptcy.   As he decried the “blatant hypocrisy” and “predatory lending practices” of credit card companies, Wellstone called the bill unjust and unfair to working families who file for bankruptcy in good faith.  Prior to his final campaign, he risked again when he voted against President Bush’s Iraq resolution.  Again, he was the lone Democrat up for re-election to challenge a popular President. 

                        This uncalculating spirit was both his Achilles heel and his most compelling quality.  We live in an age when Senators often avoid risk.  When they campaign, many opposing politicians sound the same.  Republicans and Democrats alike pledge to preserve Social Security.  They all promise to support prescription drug benefits.  They all care about educating our children.  Carefully watching the polls, our Senators and Representatives often become the equivalent of mass-marketed franchises.  Paul Wellstone was different. 

In the midst of a fierce political battle, Wellstone was struck down.  Apolitical mourning would have been shrewder politically, but that might not have been Wellstone’s style.  One could easily envision Wellstone telling his grieving friends, “don’t mourn, organize.”  Reminiscent of this Wellstone, Rick Kahn’s speech at the Memorial Service was strongly confrontational.   So were the speeches of Wellstone’s sons, David and Mark.  Fueled by intense grief, the tributes were doubtless intended to honor a man who often disparaged traditional political wisdom. 

A Wellstonian ending would have been a narrow Mondale victory despite the political mishaps of the Memorial.    But instead of a tale of tragedy and triumph, Wellstone’s followers suffered defeat amidst death.  After the election, Walter Mondale said that your principles are tested more in defeat than in victory.   For the followers of Paul Wellstone, the days and years of testing lie ahead.  

Wellstone’s sons and his campaign manager have formed an organization, Wellstone Action, dedicated to continuing Paul Wellstone’s work.   Hundreds and thousands of activists have contributed money and attended training sessions.   Inspired by Wellstone, a new generation now has the chance to organize, to campaign, to fight for justice.    That is Paul Wellstone’s memorial.

(Hofrenning is a professor and chair of the political science department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.)