Tony Kennedy Star Tribune Published Nov. 1, 2002

WILLMAR, MINN. -- Encouraged by lively crowds on a five-city tour from Moorhead to Mankato, former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman started telling supporters Thursday that he will win the U.S. Senate seat that was held by the late Paul Wellstone.

"You want to feel a winning campaign? Look around, it's right here," Coleman said at a larger-than-expected rally in Willmar.

The Republican nominee and members of his staff were buzzing all afternoon about what they described as an unexpected surge in turnout at events throughout the day in Moorhead, Fergus Falls, East Grand Forks, Willmar and Mankato.

Two of the appearances were with GOP gubernatorial nominee Tim Pawlenty, who was traveling by bus.

Coleman's airplane trip began about 7:15 a.m. at the St. Paul Downtown Airport, returning there at 7:35 p.m.

"We're traveling all over the state," he told supporters at his last stop, Mankato, where parents were there with children in Halloween costumes. "We're going to work nonstop until the polls close" Tuesday night.

At the VFW Hall on East Hwy. 12 in Willmar, about 350 people nearly filled a room where Coleman spoke proudly of his 78-year-old father, Norman Sr., a World War II veteran who fought at Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. It was the second straight day that Coleman's father and Coleman's wife, Laurie, accompanied him on a long day of campaigning by air.

"This campaign is about family, faith and freedom," Coleman told the crowd.

David Baker, a businessman from Willmar who helped organize the event, said he had never seen such a big crowd for a mid-afternoon Republican rally in the DFL stronghold of west-central Minnesota. He said it had been organized by telephone less than 24 hours earlier. Bonnie Hansen, who traveled from nearby Spicer, said separately that she too had never attended such a big rally.

"This is a very good turnout for Kandiyohi County," she said.

Baker attributed the response to the way the candidate has handled the death of Wellstone. He also said people are still reacting negatively to the Wellstone memorial service Tuesday night that many thought was too political.

"The way Norm has come out of this has gotten everybody back on track," Baker said.

"Stunning," Coleman said to himself as he boarded a campaign bus back to the Willmar airport.

Inside the VFW, the candidate repeated themes that debuted Tuesday, namely that his new Democratic opponent, former Vice President Walter Mondale, is out of touch and from a different era of politics. Coleman drew laughs when he said Mondale's political career predates the birth of Pawlenty.

"The era of big government is over," Coleman said. "We're not going back to that. We live in a different world."

He also stressed the importance of job creation through tax cuts that stimulate the economy. Sitting in front of Coleman was Earl Olson, founder of the Jennie-O turkey processing business in Willmar. He acknowledged Olson's presence and said job growth is needed to keep young people from leaving the area.

Off to the side, Coleman didn't say anything new about Mondale's posture on debates. Coleman has called for multiple debates and Mondale said Thursday he will debate only once.

"The [former] vice president has to let people know where he is today," Coleman said in an interview. "He has that responsibility. Minnesotans deserve that [a debate] and I hope we have it."

On Tuesday, Coleman's first day back on the campaign trail, the candidate had referred to Mondale as an icon and as the "Mount Rushmore" of Minnesota politics. He said a successful campaign is possible, but only after an uphill battle.

In Willmar and Mankato, however, Coleman paid no tributes to Mondale.

"I will win on November 5 and we will move forward," he said in Willmar.

Asked about his newly expressed confidence, Coleman said after the rally, "I'm still the underdog, but it's just growing."

Coleman will take to the air again today for multiple stops that will include an appearance with Vice President Dick Cheney. On Sunday, President Bush will stump for Coleman at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul at an event that at least one Twin Cities television station, KARE-11, will broadcast live. Then on Monday, Coleman is to revisit Mankato for a noon rally with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The campaign also released a new ad Thursday, featuring Coleman's 12-year-old daughter, Sarah. She speaks directly into the camera, with cutaway shots of her father playing football with son Jacob and walking with Laurie.

The ad is a revision of one that played earlier in the campaign.

"Hi, it's me again," Sarah says. "I thought of something else I want to tell you about my dad. I told you he's smart. He's nice. And when he says he's going to do something, he does it. . . . But you know the best thing about my dad? He's got a really good heart."

Unexpected touches

Both in Willmar and Mankato, Coleman evoked Wellstone's name by saying the late senator would want candidates to reengage in the election process and "get back to work." In expressing his sympathies for the eight victims of the crash, Coleman told his audiences that he too was in a campaign plane with family members last Friday flying in the same overcast weather with light snow and in the same region of the state as Wellstone had.

Coleman supporter Sandy Krenik, who was one of about 175 rally-goers at a hotel meeting room in Mankato, said people are responding to Coleman's positive message. Krenik was dressed as a clown and Coleman delighted in it.

"Great, now we've got Clowns for Coleman," he said.

Coleman's close friend Steve Moore said campaign workers took encouragement not only from Thursday's lively crowds, but from some unexpected touches. In Willmar, for example, supporters made their own T-shirts and hankies stating: "West-Central Minnesota Supports Norm." The group also sang to Coleman on his bus ride from the airport: "If you're happy and you know it, vote for Norm."

In Mankato, someone held a "Fritz Buster" sign, a reference to Mondale's nickname, and Moore said an unusual number of people were asking Coleman to autograph campaign signs and other pieces of memorabilia.

"It's an unusual amount of enthusiasm," said Moore, who was with Coleman's airplane entourage for the second day in a row.

He said Coleman's crowds used to be built partly on anti-Wellstone sentiment. "Now it's more pro-Norm," he said.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002