Vigil Held For Sen. Wellstone

Small Plane Crashes In Northern Minnesota With 8 Aboard

POSTED: 1:35 p.m. EDT October 25, 2002
UPDATED: 9:09 p.m. EDT October 25, 2002

Thousands of people are gathered at the state Capitol in Minnesota this evening, remembering Paul Wellstone. They're holding up candles, green Wellstone signs and green daisies. In the middle of the crowd stands the famous green bus that Wellstone rode on the campaign trail. Union member Jim Burns says Wellstone spoke up for people who didn't have a voice. Burns carried a Wellstone sign he took from his yard. On the back he wrote, "We are broken hearted."
"Wellstone! Wellstone!" the crowd chanted after Darryl Spence, of the Minnesota State Baptist Convention, told them not to bow their heads and cry -- but to stand tall and cheer for ``good old short Paul.'' The energetic Minnesota senator was killed in a plane crash this morning, along with his wife, daughter and five other people. U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone was one of eight people killed in a small plane crash Friday in northern Minnesota, his campaign manager confirmed.

Campaign manager Jeff Blodgett said he didn't know the circumstances of the crash in Eveleth, Minn., but said he could confirm Wellstone, his wife, Sheila, and his daughter, Marcia, were killed, along with three campaign staffers and two pilots.
Wellstone, 58, also has two sons, who were not aboard. Choppers in the region found the wreckage and confirmed the numbers on the tail of the plane match the aircraft used by Wellstone for campaigning purposes. Minnesota's senior senator was on his way to northern Minnesota to attend the funeral for the father of a Democratic state representative. The plane crashed at 10:22 a.m. CDT, The Associated Press reported. The National Weather Service said the plane crashed in freezing drizzle, with light snow and light fog. The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office says the plane crashed about 7 miles east of the airport in Eveleth. Rescue personnel are at the scene. Wellstone, known as a passionate liberal, was in the midst of a tight Senate race with former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman and seeking his third term in the Senate. Wellstone was known as a maverick, often voting alone and championing issues such as housing for homeless veterans and special education. Wellstone's colleagues are saying he was "the soul of the Senate" and "the pied piper of modern
politics." Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said everyone wanted to follow
Wellstone in his fight for what he believed in.
Wellstone is being remembered
as a passionate man, with a great heart and character. Former Vice President and fellow Minnesotan Walter Mondale said
the only thing Wellstone would want people to think of right now is
carrying on his fight for fairness for all. And Mondale said his friends "intend to do that."
Sen. Edward Kennedy called Wellstone the country's "most
passionate advocate for fairness and justice for all."
President George W. Bush, speaking from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, called Wellstone "a man of deep conviction, a plain-spoken fellow who did his best for his state and country." "May the good Lord bless those who grieve," Bush said. U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said his prayers are with Wellstone's family. "I am saddened to learn of the tragedy this afternoon," Kohl said. "The Senate will sorely miss Senator Wellstone's unique voice and his passionate efforts on behalf of the citizens of Minnesota and the country." Wellstone first won his Senate seat in 1990 and immediately mounted a high-profile opposition to the Gulf War. He did the same this year, voting against Congress' resolution authorizing Bush to order military action in Iraq if deemed necessary. The Senate passed the measure overwhelmingly. Wellstone was born to Russian immigrants in Washington D.C., on July 21, 1944. He held a doctorate in political science and was a college professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., before winning his Senate seat -- with an offbeat outsider's campaign against Republican Rudy Boschwitz.

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