Politics the Wellstone Way: How to Elect Progressive Candidates and Win on Issues
Wellstone Action!
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005
222 pp., $19.95, paperback
ISBN: 0 8166 4665 1

The late Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone, who passed away in a plane crash in 2002 while campaigning for re-election, famously used to say, “I represent the democratic wing of the Democratic party.” It is in this spirit that his two surviving sons founded Wellstone Action!
a nonprofit nonpartisan organization dedicated to organizing, education, and advocacy for the principles of participatory democracy, by teaching effective political action skills.

The organization has published its “battle plan” in book form, allowing for convenient and comprehensive access to its strategies and skill set. Politics the Wellstone Way: How to Elect Progressive Candidates and Win on Issues covers the bases of political and issue action organizing, with chapters on delivering a winning message, effective communications and field organizing, and the necessity of appropriate preparation, planning, budgeting and fundraising. It also includes a final chapter on the important issue of sustaining progressive change. The ten subject-based chapters are followed by three appendixes with practical examples drawn from actual Wellstone campaign organizing efforts and a useful template for action planning. The easily accessible handbook style serves both to direct anyone new to the process, and to reinvigorate those with prior experience in advocacy.

Focusing on the issues and not personal attacks was one hallmark of Paul Wellstone’s philosophy of public service. Two others addressed in Politics the Wellstone Way are consistent adherence to core values, and a long-term commitment to building democratic renewal and expanding grassroots empowerment. Following Wellstone’s example, the book explains the importance of having a clearly articulated message and the political will to defend it, especially in the face of adversity. It underscores the need for integrity in creating enduring and effective leadership. In a quote from Wellstone, “If we don’t fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don’t really stand for them.” Also explored is the democratic imperative of promoting citizen involvement, and recognizing that: “We renew our democracy not only on the day that we cast a ballot, but every day the circle of citizen participation is widened.”

As we speed full throttle into fall and this year’s midterm elections, New Mexicans in the 2nd congressional district, among others, are in the midst of campaigns characterized by negative ads and personal attacks. Politics the Wellstone Way provides potential antidote for the inevitability of electoral burnout. As the quote on the back cover from Texas progressive Molly Ivins reads, “Don’t mourn, organize,” Wellstone Action! has provided a fine road map for doing just that.

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Wellstone Action! at www.wellstoneaction.com
University of Minnesota Press at www.upress.umn.edu

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University of Minnesota Press
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