|
|
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
|
Arne Carlson: IR candidate for governor
|
|---|
| Parent(s) |
Race
|
| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Jun 02, 2008 04:18pm |
| Logged |
0
|
| Category | Profile |
| News Date | Monday, August 15, 1994 10:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The governor of Minnesota was ready to call it quits last fall, near the end of yet another stormy year. Arne Carlson had all but decided that the job he had long desired, and had obtained miraculously in 1990, was not worth seeking again in 1994.
DFLers in control of the Legislature were fighting him at nearly every step, and getting the best of him too often. The bungled vetoes of his first year still stung. His own Independent-Republican Party continued to snub him, despite his overtures. The editorialists and talk-show personalities, including his ex-wife, Barbara, were a source of deep and constant pain. "My thought at that time was not to run again, that the stress, the pressure, the lack of sleep, the criticism, you know, that it's not going to relent," Carlson said in a recent interview.
But quitting isn't his style, and Carlson eventually was persuaded to seek a second term, partly, he said, by his wife, Susan.
A rosy economic forecast in November sealed the decision, aides say, and made him want to try to enjoy some sunshine after years of fiscal clouds. But his reluctance and near abdication say something about Arne Carlson that those close to him have long known and outsiders sometimes sense: For much of his first term he has been uncomfortable and unhappy in his job. He's been frustrated by an inability to build a true rapport with the populace, to drum up the feeling that he's on top of things and that he's in sync with the citizens.
"The people I talk to will say things like, `I like Arne, he's OK.' But there's no passion among voters who are not partisan,' " said Dave Jennings, a former IR House speaker.
Most who know him agree that Carlson is a bit of a pill, downright unpleasant too much of the time. But his friends insist that he is a decent man whose real problem is that he is a loner and a private person in the most public job in the state. |
| Share |
|
|
2¢
|
|
| Article | Read Full Article |
|
| Date |
Category |
Headline |
Article |
Contributor |
|
|
