Historic Tidbit: “We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But, for heaven’s sake, don’t move here to live.” Oregon Republican Governor Tom McCall in the late 1960’s, concerned about population growth.
By Scott Crass
There was once a very respected Republican politician from Minnesota who served in Congress and became Governor, and there was a very respected Republican from Vermont who served as Governor before going to Congress. Minnesota’s Al Quie and Vermont’s Robert Stafford.
Quie had more impact in Congress than imaginable. Ever hear of the National prayer Breakfast. It attracts attendees from the President to the press corps. Well, Al Quie started it. Faith is very much a part of his life.
Quie won a 1958 special election and served in the House for 20 years, where he developed a solid reputation and respect. He was a knee-jerk moderate, voting backing the Democrats on Civil Rights, portions of the Great Society, and in the 70’s, busing and corporate campaign disclosure laws. He was skeptical of gigantic government, however, and he did oppose measures such as the creation of a Consumer Protection Agency.
By 1978, Quie had risen to ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee and his hold on his district was non-threatened. His reputation was such, including by Democrats, that he was considered a possible vice-presidential pick by Gerald Ford when he succeeded to the Presidency in 1974. Quie was genuinely respected by Democrats. But it was implausible for the GOP to get the House and Quie decided to go up or out. I
n 1978, Quie made a run for the Minnesota Governorship and made tax cutting his platform. 1978 was the most favorable year Republicans would enjoy in Minnesota in years (and perhaps other than 1994, after), and Quie managed to unseat Governor Rudy Perpich 54-46%. Perpich had succeeded to the Governorship nearly two years before, when Democratic-Farmer Labor Governor Wendell Anderson resigned and had himself appointed to the Senate seat Walter Mondale had vacated to become Vice-President. The backlash Anderson incurred was one reason the Democrats were plagued by so many problems in ’78, and the results were called a “massacre” for the party. Anderson was one of the casualties as he sought a full-term. Indeed, Quie supporters had put up a billboard saying the “Democratic Party is going to face something scary — an election.” It extended all the way to the Legislature, as the heavily outnumbered Republicans moved into a 67-67 tie with Democrats in the State House.
But Quie’s tenure would be a struggle. He would get his tax cut but that would prove to be his hey-dey. A Democrats coaxed a few Republicans into agreeing a temporary income tax surcharge and as the Minnesota Post would write years later, “spending shifts into the next biennium.” Quie saw it as a “bad bill,” and pondered his options for three days. Ultimately, he let the package become law without his signature, fearing that a veto would cancel payments to aid dependent localities and impact services. But it was an act that did little to endear him to anyone. Republicans were angry that he let a primarily backed Democratic bill go into law. Quie would say years later, “the question I had to come to was like this,” Quie explained. “You have a budget. You and your spouse are really staying within that budget. You look to the future, and you are going to be OK. Then your child comes down with a disease, and insurance doesn’t cover all the costs. You’ve just got to break that whole thing, because your love for your child is greater than all your budget principles. In public office, that is what you need to look at.”
His approval, and disgust with the process was such that he decided to forego re-election in 1982. Perpich won his old job back handily. But while some in his party don’t take to his brand, he nonetheless coaches a new generation of GOP officials in Minnesota. Tim pawlenty said he “is like the grandparent who loved us all. He is like the coach who has pushed us, he is like the clergymember who has inspired us. Al Quie’s life is a life of courage and service. Service with love toward others, service with an attitude of faith and hope and dedication.”
The other aspect of Quie’s life was ranching and religion. He has long served on the board of the National Prison Ministries, which helps to reform inmates. He is also a man of the outdoors. About to turn 90, he lives in Minnesota.
In later years, Quie made clear that he was not happy about the direction the GOP was going. In 2010, he endorsed Independence candidate Tom Hormer over the party endorsed candidate, —. State GOP officials were not happy, and they banned Quie and 18 other Republicans from taking part in official GOP activities for two years. Quie wasn’t pleased, but saw that as another attempt at marginalizing themselves. “I’ve got a long history,” he said. “My grandfather supported Lincoln. That’s the first time the Republican Party won the presidency!”
Quie’s official portrait (PoliticsMN)
If they’re upset at us, I really don’t blame them. I’ve been upset at Republicans who didn’t support me,” Quie said. “But what they are doing is refusing to listen to people who have an opposite view, and that’s necessary in a party.”
Like so many others, there is a book about Quie’s life. It’s called, Riding into the Sunrise: Al Quie, A Life of Faith, Service & Civility by Mitchell Perlstein. The intro says “Quie s idea of politics continues to be radically different from mean-spirited and bunkered types practiced too often by others.”
Stafford rose from Deputy Attorney General to Governor in five years (elected in 1958 with future Senate colleagues Mark Hatfield, Fritz Hollings, and Gaylord Nelson). He served just one two year term but had impact on student loans, infrastructure projects, and the Department of Administration, which he supported. before taking a seat in Congress in 1960. He served there uneventfully for more than a decade until the state’s Senator, Winston Prouty, died suddenly in 1971. Stafford was only a natural to seek the seat and he won with 58%.
In many ways, Stafford’s voting record resembled a what’s what of Democratic priorities. On the Republican takeover of the Senate in 1980, Stafford became Chair of the Environmental and Public Works Committee. In the 70’s, he voted for the Alaska wilderness bill, for Fair Housing, OSHA, the Chrysler loan. The Almanac of American Politics said he “antagonized” virtually no segment of Vermont’s population. He was instrumental in drafting clean air language. Stafford was not one of the four Republicans who opposed Reagan’s Social Security cuts. But he was among the four who opposed the confirmation of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. But his work on the environment and student loans are most associated with him, and in Stafford’s last year in office, Congress authorized the Robert T. Stafford Student Loan program. He fought attempts to curb the Superfund program, worked on acid rain legislation, and helped override Reagan’s veto of measures stengthening the Clean Air Act. He co-sponsored the Wilderness Protection Act.
There was also his demeanor, which his longtime colleague Pat Leahy said on his death that “he gave the nation a lifelong lesson in civility and decency, in the finest tradition of his beloved Vermont.” Stafford’s likability had to do with the fact that he was so low-keyed (which, politically, I guess a Governor can be when hailing from a state the size of Vermont). Occasionally, that was tested. He once told an auto industry executive “If you ever want a piece of paper saying you are a certified (S.O.B.), come to me,'”
But he was seriously pressed in his two re-election campaigns for the Senate. In 1976, he faced Thomas Salmon, a popular Governor who nonetheless faced problems from his tax hike. Stafford won 50-45%. 1982 was challenging. One of the then most reliably Republican states in the nation until that point was showing signs of changing, and Reagan was unpopular. And in Secretary of State James Guest, Stafford faced a competent foe, who, in contrast to Stafford, had to take the ballot every two years.
Stafford,(along with other like-minded Republican colleagues John Chafee, and John Danforth), squeaked by, but only barely (50-47%). He retired in 1988 at 75 (when Jim Jeffords was winning easily) and returned to Vermont. But he stayed involved. He backed Jim Jeffords’ decision to leave the Republican party and spoke out in favor of civil unions for gay couples. On the latter, he said “I consider that love is one of the great forces in our society and especially in our state of Vermont. It occurs to me that even if a same-sex couple unites in love, what harm does that do anybody or any society? So I felt compelled to come here and say that.”
When Stafford died in 2006, he was 93 years old.