Minnesota senator Wellstone dies in plane crash

US Senator Paul D. Wellstone of Minnesota, a passionate, liberal voice in the Senate, was killed suddenly and tragically in a plane crash on Friday, along with his wife Sheila, daughter Marcia, three staffers and the two pilots on board. He was 58.

Wellstone, who was Jewish, was in the midst of a pitched election battle against another Jewish politician, the former mayor of St. Paul, Norm Coleman.

Polls showed Wellstone pulling slightly ahead of Coleman before the crash. Wellstone's death induced a flurry of uncertainty and speculation about the fragile balance of power in the Senate. Democrats currently have a slim one-vote majority and the tight Minnesota race was to be one of a handful of contests that could have shifted control in the chamber.

Wellstone was en route to a funeral when the plane crashed. He was due to debate Coleman Friday evening in Duluth.

Well-known politicians, including Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) were in Minnesota Friday campaigning for Wellstone when they received word of the crash. Coleman immediately suspended all campaigning. The Minnesota Democratic party has yet to decide who will replace Wellstone on the November 5 ballot.

Minnesota law appears to require that Wellstone be replaced on the ballot by a week before election day, which this year is November 5. Former vice president Walter Mondale, 75, was one of a few names being circulated but Mondale has yet to say whether he would accept a nomination.

It was also unclear who would serve in Wellstone's place during a lame-duck session of Congress from mid-November through January. After the election, legislators must return to the Capitol to vote on appropriations bills. Governor Jesse Ventura, who is an Independent, has the power to temporarily fill the vacancy.

Wellstone's crash recalled the sudden death of Democratic Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan, who died in a plane crash three weeks before election day in October 2000. Carnahan's name remained on the ballot and he defeated Republican Senator John Ashcroft. His widow was appointed to the seat.

Tributes poured out Friday from fellow legislators from across the political spectrum, many of whom broke into tears on television while eulogizing him. President George W. Bush described Wellstone as "a man of deep convictions, a plain-spoken fellow, who did his best for his state and for his country." Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) broke down while recalling how Wellstone and wife Sheila, would always be seen walking hand-in-hand through the Senate buildings. "Whether you agreed with him or not politically, you had to like him," Leahy said on CNN. "He was extremely honest and wasn't interested at all in the trappings of power." Senator Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), perhaps Wellstone's greatest ideological rival, also praised Wellstone as a "courageous defender of his beliefs."

A vigil was held in St. Paul, the Minnesota capital Friday evening. And synagogues throughout Minnesota encouraged members to come to Friday night services to say prayers.

Yesterday in Washington on the National Mall at a rally against a war in Iraq, many demonstrators carried posters saying, "We'll miss you Paul." One of Wellstone's last votes in the Senate was a vote against the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq. Many called it a courageous vote he was the only Democrat in a tight race to vote against the resolution. But Wellstone's numbers actually spiked after his vote.

Wellstone also opposed the Persian Gulf War in 1991, one if his first votes after first being elected.

Born to Russian immigrants, Wellstone was raised in Arlington, Virginia. He married Sheila Ison in 1963 and they had three children together, a daughter who also died in the crash, and two sons. Wellstone had six grandchildren.

Wellstone was a professor of political science at Minnesota's Carleton College for 21 years before deciding to enter politics.

In a surprise upset, he defeated Republican Senator Rudy Boschwitz in 1991. A professor who had taught his students how to organize demonstrations, he was referred to as the first "60s radical to be elected to the US Senate."

Wellstone's small chartered plane went down in a swampy bog a short distance from the airport in Eveleth where it was supposed to land. Experts speculated that the crash was caused by poor, icy weather conditions.