Minnesota may not have heard the last of Matt Entenza

07/19/2006

Drive, ambition could fuel political comeback

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

Since elected to the Minnesota House in 1994, Rep. Matt Entenza has been seen as a rising star of the state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor politics.

His ambitions have been matched by his intelligence and work ethic.

As a DFL House member, he made a name for himself both by working on specific issues, including charter school and telemarketing reform, and as a party leader, helping Democrats to pick up 13 seats in the 2004 elections and bringing them within one vote of a tie in the House.

Although Entenza, an unabashed liberal, on Tuesday dropped out of the race for attorney general — an office he has long eyed — his drive and the way he departed could mean Minnesotans will hear from him again.

“He looks like a hero now,” Warren Spannaus, a former state attorney general, said of Entenza, who also didn’t file for re-election to his House seat by Tuesday’s deadline. Like others, Spannaus said Entenza’s decision to withdraw from the attorney general’s race rather than drag down the DFL Party may be seen as noble and open the door to a future in politics.

Entenza wasn’t born into political destiny.

“My family was never involved in politics growing up, so it was more of a dream to become a lawyer than to think about politics,” Entenza, 44, told the Associated Press last week.

His family lacked resources. His mother, a nurse, and his grandmother in Worthington, Minn., raised him after his alcoholic father left the family.

His memories of that upbringing peppered his speeches on the House floor and his political viewpoint.

“He never, ever forgot what it was like and where he came from,” said Glen Fladeboe, a House DFL spokesman and longtime Entenza staffer. “He always was mindful that what we do here at the Capitol really has an impact on people’s lives.”

Entenza left Worthington High School with a scholarship to Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., transferred to Macalester College in St. Paul and earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota.

He went on to clerk for a U.S. District Court judge and was hired in the charities division of the Minnesota attorney general’s office and then as an assistant county attorney in Hennepin County. In 1994, he ran for the state House and won his seat representing west-central St. Paul with 65 percent of the vote.

His political ambitions haven’t been all consuming. In 1998, several House members approached him about becoming the new minority leader and he turned them down.

“He said ‘no’ because his kids were young and he was putting his family first,” said Phil Carruthers, a former DFL House speaker.

Four years later, he took up the post of minority leader and helped Democrats focus their message into a nearly repetitive drone. Again and again under his leadership, House Democrats talked about health care, education, transportation, building the economy. Again and again, they blamed Gov. Tim Pawlenty for property tax increases, tuition hikes and health care cutbacks.

“We became extremely focused,” said current House Minority Leader Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis.

That focus, a meltdown at the Capitol in 2004 and, Republicans said, contributions Entenza gave to a Democratic political action committee helped House Democrats pick up enough seats that November to present a new challenge to the GOP majority. This year, Democrats had 66 votes and Republicans had 68 votes.

As minority leader, Entenza won respect, though not necessarily political agreement, from some Republican foes.

“He was always straightforward. He was always a gentleman. I got along great with him,” said Senate Minority Dick Day, R-Owatonna. “I found that he never lied.”

PERSONAL

Born: Oct 4, 1961

Home: Lives in St. Paul’s Merriam Park neighborhood; grew up in Worthington, Minn.

Family: Wife, Lois Quam; three sons, Ben, 16, and twins Will and Steve, 14.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Macalester College; studied law at Oxford University; law degree from University of Minnesota.

Career highlights

• Attorney in private practice; previously assistant state attorney general and assistant Hennepin County attorney.

• Elected to the House of Representatives in 1994. Serving sixth term as representative for District 64A in St. Paul. Served on the K-12 Finance, Education Policy and Commerce committees.

• Elected House DFL minority leader in 2002.

• Top legislative issues include charter school reform, property tax relief. Sponsored the state’s “Do Not Call” law in 2002, and led efforts in 2004 to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving to 0.08 percent.