Wenzel ready for the third act of his professional life
After 29 years as DFL state representative and about 7 1/2 years as a Republican presidential appointee, Steve Wenzel of Little Falls is ready to start the third act of his professional life. And this latest act doesn't foretell a run for elective office.
"No," he said last week at Central Lakes College when asked if he'd rejoin the political fray. "I should never, say never, but it's very unlikely."
Steve Wenzel, an adjunct faculty member of Central Lakes College, talked during an interview in the Rosenmeier Heritage Room in the Central Lakes College Library in Brainerd about his career in government and his future in teaching. Brainerd Dispatch/Steve Kohls » Purchase reprints of this photo.
Figuring where Wenzel now fits in politically might be a bit of a challenge. He said the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left, even though he still considers himself a Democrat. In addition to accepting an appointment in 2001 from President George W. Bush to be state director of Rural Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he has supported a number of Republicans in recent years. That list of GOP candidates includes former Sen. Norm Coleman; former Rep. Greg Blaine, who succeeded Wenzel; Gov. Tim Pawlenty; and unsuccessful House District 12B candidate Mike LeMieur, his nephew.
Wenzel's looks at other politicians
Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The greatest president."
John F. Kennedy: "My boyhood hero."
Gerald Ford: "I came to admire his presidency."
Rudy Perpich: "The greatest governor I served under."
Hubert H. Humphrey: "There are only two people I really miss in politics. Hubert Humphrey and Rudy Perpich."
Arne Carlson: "Arne Carlson was also a great governor. A great steward of state agencies."
Gordon Rosenmeier: "The greatest legislator."
Jim Oberstar: "I always supported Oberstar."
"I would describe myself as an independent, conservative Democrat," he said. "The party has become way too liberal for me."
As an example of how the DFL has changed he noted that in 1973 when he co-authored legislation to ask Congress to overturn the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling he said he obtained the support of 90 percent of the DFLers.
Looking at Minnesota's wide open governor's race he said that the Republican political landscape would be defined by whether former Sen. Norm Coleman decides to run. Without Coleman in the race, Wenzel said, former House Speaker Steve Sviggum is a person he admires and a candidate to be watched. On the DFL side, Wenzel predicted that former Sen. Mark Dayton would probably win in a primary contest.
Although he enjoyed campaigning and serving in the Legislature he doesn't want to repeat that experience. He also expressed dismay at the extreme partisanship that's present today, describing himself as a legislator who always reached across the aisle.
"Nothing was as great as representing the good people of Crow Wing and Morrison County," he said.
This latest act of Wenzel's career will feature a more focused concentration on college teaching, something Wenzel has done on a part-time, adjunct faculty basis since 1989. In order to continue teaching at Central Lakes College, Wenzel hopes to complete work on his master's degree in the next 18 months. He estimated he's about halfway through course requirements for a master's in special studies with a political science emphasis.
"I love teaching," he said. "I love to bring government to young people."
Wenzel said some students have been unable to discern his political beliefs, and that's just fine with him. He said he's willing to "criticize, regardless of party, those who haven't been good servants of the public."
He's used his political contacts to bring a host of notable guest speakers into his classroom. They include former U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, former Attorney General Mike Hatch, former Minnesota Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum, and Associate Justice G. Barry Anderson of the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Wenzel, 62, is enthusiastic about teaching at CLC.
"I love this place," Wenzel said. "The staff here is almost like a second family."
He also hopes to develop his proposed master's thesis on Minnesota's role in the 1960 presidential election into a book.
Wenzel's public service career has been marked with both variety and success at the polls. A bit of political advice he received in 1970 from then-U.S. Senate candidate Hubert H. Humphrey made an impression on Wenzel at a young age. Humphrey was seeking election to his second stint in the Senate after a distinguished career in that body followed by eight years as vice president. Wenzel, a 23-year-old Morrison County DFL chair, asked Humphrey why he was campaigning so hard in a race most people thought he couldn't lose.
Humphrey's advice was, "When the polls say you're winning, don't believe them and work all the harder. And when the polls say you're losing, believe them." Following that counsel, Wenzel won elections to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 15 straight campaigns from 1972 through 2000. In his first campaign he won with 58 percent of the vote, he said. In every subsequent campaign he said he finished 15 or 20 percentage points above the DFL index, which measures party loyalties. According to Wenzel the average length of a state legislator's career is six years. He served in the House for 29 years.
"The people were good to me," he said. "I think it (his success) was (because) I paid attention to their problems. "
He also went home to Little Falls just about every weekend, putting on more than 43,000 miles a year on his car. Yet in 29 legislative sessions, Wenzel said he missed only one day, and that was when his late mother was seriously ill.
Among the achievements he's most proud of during those years at the Minnesota Capitol, Wenzel cited the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery at Camp Ripley and the completion of a four-lane highway from Little Falls to Brainerd. He also was successful in toughening sentences for first-degree murder in the 1989 omnibus crime bill. His position as a longtime chair of the House Agriculture Committee put him in a position to help Morrison and Crow Wing County farmers.
Although he wasn't looking for a new job, his long-standing interest in agriculture and rural communities prompted him to think seriously about a change when then-House Speaker Steve Sviggum said the Little Falls legislator was being recommended for the Rural Development post.
Did it occur to him that the Republican House speaker might have recommended him for the job to get rid of a Democrat who was firmly entrenched in a legislative seat?
"There was no question that was a part of the mix ... one of the motives," he said.
Still the honor of a presidential appointment and the chance to work in an area that he was interested in made the offer attractive.
"It was an opportunity to continue my work in agriculture," he said. "At some point you have to give it (elective office) up. You don't want to be disappointed."
The transition from the policy role of a legislator to the management role of a federal administrator was not without its problems, Wenzel said.
"There is a world of difference," Wenzel said. "To say it was a difficult time, a challenging time, would be an understatement."
In his early days with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he had problems with some of the longtime managers, he said. He was responsible for a staff of 122 initially, but that force was pared down to about 108.
Eventually, Wenzel appointed five of six of the Rural Development program directors and the agency was going "full throttle." He said his agency ended up with the fifth-highest total in funding ($4.2 billion) from 2001-2008 even when competing with larger agricultural states such as Texas and Georgia. Minnesota was ranked first per capita on money distributed per rural resident from 2001-2008.
Three goals he said that he and his staff were able to achieve during his tenure with Rural Development were increasing the agency's public visibility, preserving most of the agency's regional offices and bringing Rural Development's ratio of supervisors to staff down to a level that was consistent with the national average.
He said he had to share credit for Rural Development's success with an outstanding staff. He is equally optimistic with the appointment of his successor, Colleen Landkamer, who has been a Blue Earth County commissioner since 1988.
"She'll do an outstanding job," Wenzel predicted.
Reflecting on his years of work in the Legislature and in the federal government, Wenzel expressed satisfaction. He also said he's looking forward to doing more college teaching.
"I just feel very positive about my work in public service," he said.