Without a consumer protection statute on the books in Minnesota at the time, he sued the company under a public nuisance law, driving it out of business in the state. He was the first Minnesota attorney general to make consumer protection a campaign issue.įollowing complaints about a furnace repair scam, Mondale became an early consumer advocate. Mondale was elected attorney general in the fall of 1960 and was reelected in 1962.Īs attorney general, Mondale moved quickly into civil rights, antitrust and consumer protection cases. Mondale began a law practice in Minneapolis and ran the successful 1958 gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Orville Freeman, who appointed Mondale state attorney general in 1960. His education, interrupted by a two-year stint in the Army, culminated with a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1956. He was only 20 when he served as a congressional district manager for Humphrey’s successful Senate campaign in 1948. Too young to vote, Mondale nevertheless volunteered for the campaign, trudging through the late winter snow and slush to ring doorbells and hand out pamphlets. And for a young person, that was really wonderful to watch," Mondale said. Brilliant, but he had this second engine on him. These ideas were no doubt on the 18-year-old's mind in 1946, when a Macalester College political science instructor took him to a Minneapolis hotel, where Humphrey, a fiery young mayor, was rallying support for his reelection bid. “We got it over breakfast, we got it over lunch, being a preacher's kid you had to go all the services, the prayer meetings, had to go to choir practice, it was heavy duty, but you got the message after a while." "The idea that the Christian faith required attention to the least of these and that justice was a part of our faith, that had a lot to do with it,” he said. In a 2009 interview, Mondale said religion was a big part of his upbringing and it influenced his liberal politics. In the Mondale home two things were strictly forbidden - lying and bragging. Photo courtesy Minnesota Historical Society From an early age his middle name Frederick morphed into "Fritz" - a nickname that stuck. Mondale was of Norwegian stock, but the town was largely German. 5, 1928, in tiny Ceylon, Minn., a small town near the Iowa border and grew up in several small southern Minnesota towns. The son of a Methodist minister and a music teacher, Walter Frederick Mondale was born Jan. Wellstone had been preparing to take on Mondale in a primary but would have been a heavy underdog. That paved the way for Wellstone to win the Democratic nomination, and go on to upset Boschwitz. “You can’t keep running Walter Mondale for everything.” “One of the requirements of a healthy party is that it renews itself,” he said at the time. Rudy Boschwitz, but he decided against making the race, saying it was time to make way for a new generation. That year, Democrats tried to persuade him to challenge Minnesota GOP Sen. “I think that the country more than ever needs progressive values,” Mondale said in 1989. Mondale never backed away from his liberal principles. Reminded of that shortly before he was picked as Carter’s running mate, Mondale said, “I’ve checked and found that they’re all redecorated, and they’re marvelous places to stay.” 2 on his ticket and went on to unseat Gerald Ford. senator in 1975, Mondale pushed through a key rule change that cut the number of votes needed to end a filibuster from 67 to 60.
“Basically I found I did not have the overwhelming desire to be president, which is essential for the kind of campaign that is required,” he said in November 1974.Īs a U.S. Mondale tested the waters for a presidential bid in 1974 but ultimately decided against it. Like Humphrey, he was an outspoken supporter of civil rights. His Senate career was marked by advocacy of social issues such as education, housing, migrant workers and child nutrition. In 1972, Mondale won another Senate term with nearly 57 percent of the vote.
#Former vice president walter mondale full
Mondale was elected to a full six-year term with about 54 percent of the vote in 1966, although Democrats lost the governorship and suffered other election setbacks. Mondale started his career in Washington in 1964, when he was appointed to the Senate to replace Humphrey, who had resigned to become vice president.
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