Ramsey County History podcast

Tim Pawlenty grew up in a family of South St. Paul Democrats but embraced Republicanism as a teenager. He was a hard worker and excellent student in public schools and at the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Law School. He was hired by a prestigious Minneapolis law firm before getting into politics. At age thirty-two, Pawlenty was a member of the state legislature, where he quickly rose to positions of authority. He served as House majority leader when Jesse Ventura was governor. He then succeeded Ventura as Minnesota governor in a close three-way race in 2002. In office (2003-2011), Pawlenty faced large budget deficits thanks to hard economic times and strong DFL opposition in the legislature. He also made a no-new-taxes pledge that restricted his flexibility. He did succeed in slowing the rate of government growth and presided over some legislation and initiatives that have proved enduring.

To call our thirty-eighth governor, Jesse Ventura, unique is to engage in understatement. He was Minnesota’s first third-party governor since Elmer Benson in 1936. Though he ran on the Reform Party ticket, that party elected no one else, so he had no allies in the legislature. His plurality, 37% of the vote, was the lowest of any Minnesota governor. No other governor had been a national celebrity before election, and none before him used the governorship to enrich himself while in office. Despite everything, his term (1999-2003) was a reasonably successful one, marked by substantial tax rebates, a reform of property taxes and school funding, and the foundations of the Twin Cities light rail system. Ventura declined to run for a second term.

Arne Carlson, Minnesota’s thirty-seventh governor, was a Swede and a progressive Republican, like several before him, but unlike them, too. He grew up poor in New York City and had no connection to the dominant Harold Stassen political lineage. Carlson came to Minnesota for graduate school—then won election after election: Minneapolis City Council, he legislature, and three terms as state auditor.  He lost the 1990 GOP primary for governor but won the nomination anyway when John Grunseth flamed out. He ran the shortest election campaign in Minnesota history—five days—to defeat incumbent Governor Rudy Perpich. Carlson served eight effective years and was reelected in 1994 by a landslide. He went out like he did everything—on his own terms.

Following his gubernatorial defeat in 1978, Rudy Perpich (1928-1995) spent a few years in Vienna, Austria, working as a trade representative for Control Data Corporation, but it wasn’t long before he began planning another run for the state’s highest role. Voters remembered him fondly and ushered him back into office in 1982, making him the first (and only) governor of Minnesota to serve noncontinuous terms. Perpich returned to the governor’s seat with a new outlook on bringing economic health to Minnesota, working with and not against big business. No longer the slightly rumpled and lovable character with crazy ideas, he was polished and confident and worked to attract international companies to the state. He was reelected yet again in 1986, making him our longest-serving governor. He might be remembered for the high drama he often brought to the office, which eventually earned him the nickname Governor Goofy, but he was much more than that. His legacy in the advancement of women in law and politics and in education reform lives on today.

Growing up in Frogtown

In 1941, young Wendy Ham’s Gumpa Guy Metzger built a dollhouse—a replica of the family home at 435 Charles Avenue in St. Paul. In 2023, Wendy Ham Rossi donated the “two-story,” six-room dollhouse complete with “indoor plumbing” to Ramsey County Historical Society, a gift for which we are grateful. She also penned a companion memoir about growing up on Charles and, later, at 554 Arundel Street surrounded by the love of her grandparents, parents, and little sister, Joyce. And she graciously recorded a reading, which you can hear online. The retired St. Paul public school teacher weaves memories of the dollhouse and her two childhood homes, her love of books—especially Little Women—and her absolute distaste for household chores into a delightful story that will bring smiles to readers’ faces and likely spur memories of your own growing-up adventures from decades’ past.

Albert H. Quie (1923-2023) left a safe seat in Congress after twenty years to run for governor in 1978. In that, his timing was good. He rode around the “Minnesota Massacre” and into office as the state’s thirty-fifth governor along with fellow Republicans Dave Durenberger and Rudy Boschwitz, who were elected to the US Senate. But in another respect, his timing could not have been worse. A successful first year of tax cuts was followed by an unwelcome recession that slashed state revenues and triggered a three-year budget crisis requiring six special legislative sessions and making most of the governor’s political agenda impossible to achieve. Quie did not seek reelection, moving, instead, into a long career of public service, most notably in prison ministry. 

March of the Governors, Governor #34 Rudy Perpich Series Podcast #37

Rudy Perpich (1928-1995) served as Minnesota's thirty-fourth governor in the years 1977 and 1978. He got there by succession when Wendell Anderson resigned. Perpich then appointed Anderson to the US Senate—the first event leading to the Minnesota Massacre of 1978. Perpich was the first Iron Ranger, the first dentist, and first Roman Catholic to serve as governor and, maybe, the last to have grown up in poverty. His term was marked by the national energy crisis, controversies over electric power lines, and Reserve Mining Corporation, and the death of Hubert Humphrey. It ended with his crushing defeat by Al Quie in 1978. But he would be back

March of the Governors, Governor #33 Wendell Anderson (Series Podcast #35)

Before an ignominious electoral end, Wendell “Wendy” Anderson was one of Minnesota’s most significant and popular governors. Born and raised on St. Paul’s East Side, he had been an Olympic hockey player and a twelve-year legislative veteran when elected governor in 1970 at the age of thirty-seven. In his first term, Anderson successfully encouraged legislative passage of landmark open government, environmental, labor and other forward-looking laws. Most importantly, he campaigned and got passed a sweeping change in how K-12 education in the state was funded—later termed the “Minnesota Miracle.” For his efforts, Anderson was reelected in 1974 with 63 percent of the vote, carrying every county in the state. However, four years later, as a consequence of his self-appointment to that body, voters chose rival Rudy Boschwitz over him for the US Senate by a 56-40-percent margin, effectively ending his political career. Anderson later practiced law, was a television political commentator and served on the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents. He died in 2016.

March of the Governors, Governor #32 Harold Levander (Series Podcast #35)

Harold Levander (1910-1982) ran for political office once in his long life, in 1966. He defeated incumbent governor Karl Rolvaag, served four years, and never ran for office again. He had been a star athlete in college, in football and track, and a national champion orator. He practiced law in Harold Stassen's firm, where he represented rural electric power cooperatives and the South St. Paul stockyards. As a Republican governor, he helped enact a remarkably progressive agenda that included creation of the sales tax, the Metropolitan Council, and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

March of the Governors, Governor #31 Karl Fritjof Rolvaag (Series Podcast #34)

Karl Fritjof Rolvaag (1913-1990) grew up in Northfield, the son of acclaimed novelist Ole Rolvaag. Upon his father’s untimely death in 1931, Rolvaag roamed the West for five years, working in the fields and forests and allying himself with that most radical of unions—Industrial Workers of the World. He graduated from St. Olaf College in 1942. He then began six years in the US Army that included combat service as a tank commander. After graduate work at the University of Minnesota, he became an organizer and frequent candidate for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. He won election as lieutenant governor four times. In the 1962 election, Rolvaag defeated incumbent Governor Elmer L. Andersen by ninety-one votes. As governor, he pushed for a modern community college system, helped reapportion Minnesota’s legislative districts, oversaw the passage of a taconite amendment for the Iron Range, supported notable reforms in mental health, and protected the environment. In 1966, he lost his bid for reelection to Harold Levander. Rolvaag later served two years as ambassador to Iceland and as chair of the Minnesota Public Service Commission. He resigned to fight his alcoholism and spent the rest of his life lecturing and counseling others about the importance of treatment.