Masonry? Am VERY hungover, so generally suspicious this morning, harhar...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Anti-war senator Wellstone dies in plane crash

Democrat liberal killed with wife and daughter

Suzanne Goldenberg in Minneapolis
Saturday October 26, 2002
The Guardian

Paul Wellstone, called the conscience of the US Senate for his passion and liberal convictions, was killed in an air crash yesterday, in the final days of a knife-edge mid-term election campaign.
Wellstone, 58, was seen as a symbol of the anti-war movement for voting against President George Bush earlier this month on the resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq, a stand that gave this contest in Minnesota national significance.
He was killed with his wife and daughter, three campaign staff and two pilots when their small propeller plane went down in icy rain at Eveleth, in north-eastern Minnesota.

[...]

The race for the Minnesota Senate seat, which Wellstone held for 12 years - two terms - was perhaps the most closely followed in the country, not only because of its importance to the future of the house, but because Wellstone's stand on Iraq had been seen as courageous, but political suicide.

Mr Bush personally intervened to anoint Wellstone's challenger, Norm Coleman, and has visited the state three times to campaign on his behalf.

[...]

He did not mention Iraq - except to say that it was jobs and the economy that mattered. "I think the national media got it wrong, the focus is NOT on Iraq," he said.

[...]

It also made Wellstone a magnet for young anti-war volunteers. "I've got to wonder now whether Iraq hurt him," said Mr Coleman. "It seems to have mobilised his base."

It is unclear what effect Wellstone's death will have on the campaign. After Mel Carnahan, the Democratic challenger for the Senate seat in Missouri, died in a plane crash during the campaign for the 2000 elections, his name remained on the ballot and he defeated his Republican opponent. His wife, Jean Carnahan, eventually took up his seat.