Lourey enters race for governor

11/16/2005

BY BILL SALISBURY
Pioneer Press

If Minnesotans are ready for a sharp left turn, state Sen. Becky Lourey will give them a liberal alternative in the governor’s race.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmaker from tiny Kerrick in northeastern Minnesota formally announced her candidacy Tuesday.

“My vision,” Lourey said at a Capitol news conference, “is for a Minnesota where every family has a job that pays a living wage in a safe community, excellent schools to send their children to, closing the achievement gap in K-12, affordable health care for all Minnesotans.”

Lourey, an anti-war leader whose son died while serving in Iraq earlier this year, is the first woman in a crowded field of candidates lining up to challenge Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty next year. Other announced DFL candidates are Attorney General Mike Hatch, state Sen. Steve Kelley, real estate developer Kelly Doran and perennial candidate Ole Savior. In addition, businessman and former state Finance Commissioner Peter Hutchinson is gearing up to seek the Independence Party’s nomination.

If Lourey, a 15-year legislative veteran, wins the DFL Party’s endorsement, it would be a first for a woman in any major Minnesota party.

This is her second campaign for governor. She ran for the DFL endorsement in 2002, finishing third at the party’s state convention behind state Sen. Roger Moe and state Auditor Judi Dutcher.

Lourey, 62, is one of the most liberal and well-liked members of the Senate. She co-sponsored the state’s innovative MinnesotaCare health insurance program for the working poor in 1992 and has championed universal health care and prescription drug coverage, early childhood education and boosting farm incomes.

While she’s a passionate advocate for liberal causes, she’s popular with senators of all stripes because she is kind, fair and respectful to those with whom she disagrees, said Sen. Brian LeClair, a Woodbury Republican who’s as conservative as Lourey is liberal. “Becky Lourey is a lovely lady, but she comes from a political and ideological background that I very much disagree with. Still, it’s hard not to like her.”

Lourey said she can bring people together. “I will change the tone in government,” she said.

She was a critic of the war in Iraq even before her son, Army Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Lourey, died there in May when his helicopter was shot down. After that, she joined an anti-war vigil outside President Bush’s Texas ranch to support other mothers of fallen soldiers and became more outspoken against the war.

On Tuesday, she said she would curtail her anti-war activities to focus on state issues. But she also criticized the Bush administration for repeatedly deploying Minnesota National Guard units on a “poorly defined mission with no end in sight.”

“In my administration,” she said, “we will work to bring our state Guard home to their families and communities where they belong.”

Although Lourey declined the liberal label, she called for investing more in education, health care, roads and mass transit. To pay for these investments, she favors taxes “based on the ability to pay,” but she refused to say whether she would increase income taxes.

Democrat Wy Spano, director of the Center for Advocacy and Political Leadership at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, thinks Lourey has a serious shot at winning the DFL endorsement.

“With all of Bush’s troubles, it’s easier to be a liberal now. That makes the whole DFL establishment a little less conservative than they have been over the past four or five years,” said Spano, a former lobbyist and editor of the newsletter Politics in Minnesota.

“The rap on Becky by a lot of people before was: ‘She’s a wonderful person, and we all love her dearly, but she’s just too liberal to sell to the general public.’ I think that argument has less cachet now. That makes a larger opening for her than there was last time,” he said.

Carleton College political scientist Steven Schier agreed, saying, “No one else (in the DFL field) has a claim on the allegiance of the Democratic left.”

Lourey launched her campaign Tuesday morning in Bruno at Namadji Research Corp., the software business she and her husband, Gene, started 14 years ago. It now employs 70 workers.

The Loureys raised 12 children. Three have died.

A tenacious politician, Lourey lost two House races before she was first elected in 1990. After serving three House terms, she launched an underdog challenge and unseated veteran Sen. Florian Chmielewski of Sturgeon Lake, a fellow DFLer who was under fire for ethical misdeeds, in 1996. She has easily won two re-election contests since then.

BECKY LOUREY

Age: 62

Residence: Lives in Kerrick; grew up in Little Falls

Family: Husband, Gene; 12 children (three have died)

Education: Graduated from Little Falls High School; attended Asbury College and University of Minnesota; no college degree

Work experience: Former Minneapolis community activist and family farmer in Pine County, she and her husband founded a data management and software business in Bruno 14 years ago.

Political experience: Elected to the House in 1990, 1992 and 1994; elected to the Senate in 1996, 2000 and 2002. Unsuccessfully sought DFL endorsement for governor in 2002.