Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 35

MetroState SUNDAY. OCTOBER 6 1996 STAR TRIBUNE PAGE B3 Minnesota politic Week in review If The candidates, the issues and what's going on behind the scenes across the state. In politics 'sosy' may not be enough Hennepin County Board District 2 Facing the voters after misdeeds st Sandra Hilary has joined the ranks of officials seeking reelection after misdeeds. Voters have shown varying degrees of forgiveness. Staff Photo by Darlene Pfister Lois Orth retired last week after 39 years as an elevator operator at the Young Qulnlan building In downtown Minneapolis.

Anthony Elevator operator retires mtb mmr mm How much are voters willing to forgive and forget? These three politicians faced public scrutiny after either admitting problems or being found guilty of wrongdoing. Florlan Chmlelewskl, a 26-year state senator, pleaded guilty last winter to a gross misdemeanor charge of allowing his relatives to ring up nearly bation for a year following an incident in which he was accused of slapping his wife in a St Paul parking lot. He resigned as Senate majority whip and then decided not to run yr New Hope Golden Pmouth. Medicine Lake jS 7 i apolis Lakl I St Louis Park Minnetonka I Minnetonka for reelection. Sandra Hilary, a Hennepin County commissioner since 1992, admitted to a gambling addiction in 1994 and filed for personal bankruptcy.

A state investigation found no criminal wrongdoing connected to her Star Tribune map $4,000 in private calls on his state telephone access card. The DFLer skirted the Senate Ethics and Campaign Reform Committee, which tried unsuccessfully to review the matter. Chmielewskl Lois Orth, who had worked as an elevator operator at the Young Quinlan building in Minneapolis for 39 years, retired this week. Orth, '72, said she was retiring because she recently moved to Fridley and no longer wants to deal with getting up in the morning and battling Minnesota winters. She said she has given elevator rides to a host of people, including Cesar Romero, Gloria Swanson and Liberace.

The Young Quirf-lan building is one of the few in the Twin Cities that still uses elevator operators. Troopers followed policy, patrol says Troopers followed State Patrol policy April 20 when they ended a 75-minute chase on Twin Cities freeways by ramming a stolen pickup truck, then rushing its occupants, the patrol said. Passenger Adam Hotkiewicz was fatally shot by trooper Curt Karges seconds after the truck was stopped in St. Paul. State Patrol officials called the incident a tragedy that was unavoidable utv- ftpr thp rirriimctanrpc Jl'J'A I By Mark Brunswick Star Tribune Staff Writer Oddball political question of the day: With whom does Hennepin County Board Member Sandra Hilary have more in common, TV talk-show host Jerry Springer or steely-eyed Hollywood tough guy Clint Eastwood? It may be Springer.

Before his syndicated television show, Springer was a Cincinnati City Council member caught paying for a prostitute with a check. Despite the controversy, he was elected mayor afterward and eventually ran for Ohio governor. Or it could be Eastwood. Not because of his political views as former mayor of Carmel, but because of the title of his Oscar-winning movie: "Unforgiven." Hilary is running for reelection for the first time since acknowledging a gambling addiction and filing for personal bankruptcy. She joins other politicians who have faced the public since acknowledging or being caught for their misdeeds and have met with varying de gambling but was critical of attempts she made to obtain personal loans the prostitute.

He held a news conference with his wife, apologized and resigned from the council shortly afterward. Despite advice against it, Springer ran for reelection the next year and was the highest vote-getter in the field of candidates by 10,000 votes. "It may be a formula today, but 20 years ago it was quite unusual," said Gene Beaupre, a Xavier University political science professor who was Springer's staff assistant. from what were described as questionable sources, including a downtown Minneapolis nightclub owner. She has undergone stepped down as chairman of the Transportation and Public Transit Committee.

He also gave up his position as president pro tern of the Senate, the second presiding officer during Senate floor sessions. Voters turned him out of office in September's primaries. Kevin Chandler pleaded guilty to fifth-degree domestic assault, paid a fine of $210 and was placed on pro- 'orTK Fugitive arrested in St Paul counseling and has become an opponent of No more apologies For her part, Hilary, a tough-talking former waitress, appears to have had enough of what she has called "the pussyfooting around" about the election. After failing to get the DFL endorsement for her Second District race before the primary, Hilary was endorsed by her party afterward. In her acceptance speech, Hilary made no apologies, a change from what she has done in the past.

She Richard A. Cepulonis, 49, one of the 10 fh(st wanted criminals in Massachusetts, was arrested Tuesday in St. Paul near the home where he had lived quietly after escaping from prison nine years ago, authorities said. Cepulonis had been serving a prison term of up to 82 years in Massa chusetts for armed robbery, bank robbery as sault with intent to murder and possession of a machine gun. He escaped in 1987, aided by his wife, Karen D.

Walters, whom he married in 19.85 while in prison. Walters, 40, was also arrested Tuesday by members of the Minnesota Fugitive Task Force. Agents said they received a tip that Cepulonis and his wife were living in St. Paul from a TV viewer who saw him on "Unsolved Mysteries" in August. Cepulonis was known as Thomas Leo Langstone in Minnesota, and Walters was using the alias Debbie Langstone.

Gun control showdown looms More than a decade after towns and cities in Minnesota lost the power to regulate ownership and possession of firearms, elected officials In Minneapolis and St. Paul are organizing a "new legislative campaign to pass tighter gun restrict-tions. In what could shape up as a classic 'gun showdown between the crime-weary urban centers and bucolic rural Minnesota, the city couh'-cils of Minneapolis and St. Paul are considering grees ot success aiterward. Minnesota not-so nice Hilary has become a virtual poster child against gambling, testifying in legislative committees and being featured in magazines about her bout with the addiction.

Will it be enough? Voters are traditionally tough on politicians, whose behavior raises questions about their ability to handle a checkbook, either their own or the public's. The landscape is littered with politicians who misjudged the wrath of the voter. For example, in 1978, popular DFL Gov. Wendell Anderson transformed himself into an unpopular incumbent U.S. senator by arranging his appointment to fill then-Vice President Walter Mondale's vacant seat.

Minnesota Republicans have not been immune. U.S. Sen. Dave Duren-berger was disciplined twice by his Senate colleagues: in 1988 for spilling possibly classified information while trying to raise campaign money in Florida; and in 1990 for expanding his income improperly through deals involving books and real estate, gifts of cash and limousine rides, and for failing to disclose some of these transactions as required by law. He was indicted federally on similar charges relating to his real estate dealings and reached a plea bargain in 1995.

Two years earlier, party officials had breathed a collective sigh of relief when he decided not to run again. And in September, unrepentant DFLer Florian Chmielewski of Sturgeon Lake, a 26-year veteran of the state Senate, was defeated in the primary election after pleading guilty to a gross misdemeanor charge for allowing relatives to run up nearly $4,000 in private calls using his state telephone access code. "People may not talk about it much, but they remember it when they go to the voting booth," said lobbyist D.J. Leary, a co-publisher of the newsletter "Politics in Minnesota." "If you are an opponent, you don't even have to mention it," he said. "You can take the high road and know that people still are aware of it." Some misdeeds seem to be accepted more than others.

Former Ramsey County Attorney Tom Foley and Hennepin County Board Member Randy Johnson have been arrested for drunken driving. Both cases were regarded as providing textbook examples of how to handle the aftermath. Within three hours after drunken-driving charges were filed against Foley in 1988, he pleaded guilty and was taken into custody for a two-day stay in jail. After being arrested this year on a Thursday, Johnson pleaded guilty the following Monday and served his time Saturday through Tuesday. The fallout for both was negligible.

But Leary said the public acceptance depends upon the accusation and the political climate in which it occurs. Up-and-coming DFL state Sen. Kevin Chandler, of White Bear Lake, pleaded guilty to domestic assault after an incident with his wife in a parking lot. He found public sentiment so strong against him that he first resigned as Senate majority whip and then decided not to seek reelection this year. Phoenix from the ashes Outside of Minnesota, Springer, the talk-show host, may be one of the best examples of political redemption.

Springer was a City Council member in largely conservative Cincinnati. In the early 1970s, he was about to assume an appointed one-year term as mayor when the story broke about came out swinging, blasting her opponent, independent Mark Stenglein, for being "a Newt Gingrich Republican" whose election would mean that a Republican majority board would make "poor people fodder for the never-ending, mean-mouthed rhetoric of the right." Stenglein, a northeast Minneapolis resident making his first attempt at elected office, has not made much of Hilary's personal issues. But he said voters may. Stenglein recalls meeting one man standing in his yard. "He said, 'I'm DFL, in broken English, and I thought to myself, 'Don't expect much Stenglein said.

"But then the guy says: 'We deal with our own here. She won't get my vote for this identical resolutions urging the Legislature to rescind the state's 1985 preemption of local authority on firearms laws. The resolutions would bring the issue to the Legislature, wherea combination of outstate legislators and the' Na tional Rifle Association beat back a similar proposal three years ago. Week in preview Campaign talk By the numbers Voter assistance: ing a $5,000 a person breakfast at the Minneapolis Club to raise money for the "House and Senate Republican Media Fund." House Minority Leader Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, who is gambling that the ethics issue is worth the large media buy, pre dicts the money will be rused. one at the home of a "corporate polluter heir." State GOP Chairman Chris Georgacas contended that Well-stone now takes lots of special-interest money, just like his challenger, Rudy Boschwitz.

Jeff Blodgctt, Wellstone's campaign manager, snorted at the latest Republican assault. He noted that the host of the fundraiser was John Hunting, an environmental activist who had renovated the house into "a showcase for certain environmentally friendly living spaces." 1 turning's late father owned a Michigan office furniture com And at $5,000 a pop, the eggs should be fresh. Robert Whereatt Bushels of good news It's as regular and predictable an occurrence in the political world as cocktail weinies at a fund-raiser. We're talking about the sudden flurry of last-minute goodies that come flowing back to the district at election time. Call it pork, or call it your tax dollars at work.

We present here our first election season tally of "Good News From Washington." Since Sept. 25, U.S. Sen. Paul Well-stone has announced grants for: Arne, please don't go Monday The Ramsey County Board and the St. Pau City Council will hold their first joint discussior of the proposed consolidation of the county anc city public health departments.

City and count; staffs will compare their respective views oh joint powers agreement, possibly the first step a full merger. The problems of combining tw health staffs, such as reconciling difference, ji benefits and seniority, also will be discussed Several previous attempts to merge the agencie during the past 50 years have failed. The meetin begins at 6 p.m. in Room 40B in the St. Paul Cit Hall-Ramsey County Courthouse.

Tuesday Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton and membe'i of the Minneapolis City Council will answer cit zen questions about airplane noise mitigation 7 p.m. in the Lynnhurst Park Gym, W. 50th and W. Minnehaha Pkwy. Wednesday More than 40 Twin Cities employers will at the Crystal Community Center, 4800 Dougj; Dr.

N. in Robbinsdale, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.r Wednesday for HIRED's job fair. Staffers match job seekers and skills with employers ar their available positions from entry-level to pr fessional jobs. All employers at the fair ha Though Gov.

Arne Carlson Whafs available The League of Women Voters has set up several hot lines to assist voters for the Nov. 5 general election. The league provides Information about registration, precincts, voting locations and candidates. The Minnesota League of Women Voters will sponsor a hot line 338-1300 with WCCO-TV from 5 to 11 p.m. Nov.

from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Nov. 4, and from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Nov. 5. The League of Women Voters of Minneapolis hot line 333-6319 will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. from noon to 6 p.m.

Nov. 4, and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 5.

The League of Women Voters In St. Paul can be reached at 222-1215 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Hmong voters can call 333-6319 from 4 to 7 p.m.

Nov. 4. People who speak Chinese can call from 4 to 7 p.m. Nov. 1.

With support from the Leann Chin Foundation and the Organization of Chinese-Americans, the league also is distributing a brochure written in Chinese and English to educate Chincse-Ameri- cans on the election process. It will be ed in Chinese restaurants, groceries, stores, schools, the University of Minnesota and public libraries. has made it clear he will not run for a third term term limits, he calls it), there are some Republicans who would like him to reconsider. "I asked him, with a view to encouraging him, if he were pany that was among firms held responsible for a Superfund toxic waste dump, but there has been no indication that 1 lunting had any role in the pollution. Blodgctt said the campaign raised about $10,000 at the is merely "fighting back" against GOP attack ads "funded by the oil compa open to the idea, said Chris Georgacas, Minnesota Republi can Party chairman.

Gov. Carlson is clearly on the cutting edge of education reform which I think demands a sustained fo cus from the biggest bully pulpit nies, chemical companies, the insurance industry and the to in Minnesota. Tony Trimble, a former Re- bacco industry. Greg Gordon mblican Party chairman and a awyer who has done work for Reaching the candidates the Carlson administration, said that more than a few would like to see Carlson run again. "It's I vm 1 Mil 3 $200,000 to study a Minneapolis-Chicago high-speed rail link.

$541,000 for a Minneapolis homeless veterans shelter. $1.3 million in aid for metro area small businesses. $2 million for sound-proofing around the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. $3.2 million for drug elimination in public housing.

That's a total of $7.3 million of Good News From Washington. Patricia Lopez Baden What a welcome Wcllstonc boosters brought campaign checks, while youthful GOP demonstrators carried signs chiding the Democratic senator "Washington Sure I las Changed You." The Minnesota GOP had alerted the media to Wellstone's recent fund-raiser two blocks from the U.S. Capitol with a press release assailing him for taking "dirty money. It also accused Wcllstone of culminating a series of "hypocritical out-of-slate 'mansion parties' with Elections often seem tike one way events: the candidates tell you what they think, how nothing organized. It Just talk, people indicating that this $5,000 bacon and eggs Republicans are ready to un good they are or how bad their opponent Is.

Here's what you need to respond might be the nest tor me state and the party." current job openings, and the event is free ai open to the public. HIRED is a nonprofit ageft that offers free training and employmc services. vj. il Saturday In 1994, 54 million women chose not vote, and Dakota County was one of six count statewide least represented by the female vo To insure a larger female voter turnout tl election, the Minnesota Valley Branch of i American Association of University Women sponsor a gct-out-the-vote drive in Dakota Cot ty entitled "A Working Meeting to F.mpow Inform and Visibly Promote Women will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 Saturday at the Dakota County Library Bu haven, 1101 W.

County Rd. 42 in Burnsvi Beverly Swenson of the 1996 Minnesota Wc en's Vote Project will be keynote speaker. Atte ccs will receive voter registration training: more Information, call the library at 435-7177. Karint Mtcliael Carlson still cn toys high TfieM art the phone numbers for the Minnesota canaV dates running the VS. Senate.

marks in the most recent polls, and presumably could help Re 7179912 Dean Bark ley, Reform 545-9696 leash a $400,000 radio and television blitz charging Dl Ix-rs in the Legislature with ethical lapses and criminal acts. The blitz, to start Oct. 21, urges voters to kick the DFL rascals out and replace them with Republicans. Trouble is, Republicans haven't raised the $400,000 yet. To reach that goal, Gov.

Arne Carlson and frequent -donor Rudy BoschwrU. Republican Roy Ezra Carrion, Lbertarian publican legislative candidates In 1998, when his term ends. But the governor will be 64 that year, and has said he would like to retire from government to a teaching position somewhere. Robert Wliereatt 8947590 J22J396 6451674 Tim Davis, Grassroots Thomas Fiske, Socialist Workers 9385105 Howard Hanson, Resource Steve Johnson, Natural Law Whcclock Whitney, are co-host 6430828.