Harry Welty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harry Welty is a local politician in Minnesota who has run unsuccessfully State and Federal Offices as well as serving on the Duluth School Board for eight years and being a regular columnist for The Reader Weekly. He gave up his column in 2006 as an unfair advantage in his (failed) run for the House of Representatives[1] as an independent under the "Unity" banner. In addition to his career as a writer and politician, Welty is locally famous for his snow sculpture.

1 School Board career
2 Affiliation with Unity08
3 Electoral history
4 External links

[edit] School Board career

Welty served on the Duluth School Board (two terms, starting in 1995 and ending in 2004) during which time the district faced declining enrollment, labor issues with teachers, and state budget cuts.

Welty briefly served as the Chair of the School Board. In January of 1998 his election to that position caused the Duluth Union Tribune to quip "It's only the second political win in his otherwise unblemished record of losses as the classic 'outsider' -- some would say 'crackpot' -- candidate for local, state and even national political office."[2] In April of 1998, after finding himself in a war of words with the teacher's union president, he resigned from the Chair in front of 300 teachers lobbying for a better salary offer. He got a laugh stabbing a voodoo doll with a request to "exorcise the evil spirits" from the Duluth School Board. [3] [4]

Welty does things publicly. His unique style is perhaps best revealed via the documents he maintained about his experiences on the school board. When the district faced a financial crisis and had to close schools for financial reasons, Welty put up a web page describing the day by day details, including solicited email comments from the public, and the plan he preferred (that wasn't accepted by the rest of the board). For that matter, Welty has a rather frank webpage explaining his "Voodoo Resignation".

[edit] Affiliation with Unity08

Welty is notable as a Republican turned "third party politician" in that his 2006 run made him the first ever candidate to carry the banner of Unity08 despite that organization's fuzzy status as a "not yet real, but possibly eventual" political party at the time he affiliated himself with them. As the 2006 election went on, Unity08 was working to establish itself as a formal non-profit organization, which made them incapable of supporting Harry Welty publicly, such as on their website.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Electoral history

1995 - 2004 Duluth School Board
- Harry Welty served as a board member.
2000 Race for Minnesota State Senate - District 6[5]
- Douglas J. Johnson (DFL) (83.7%)
- Harry Welty (Republican) (16.3%)
2002 Race for Minnesota State House - Dist. 7A[6]
- Harry Welty (Republican) (37.8%)
- Tom Huntley (DFL) (61.9%)
- Write-In (0.3%)
2006 Race for U.S. Representative - 8th District
- Jim Oberstar (DFL) (inc.), 64%
- Rod Grams (Republican), 34%
- Harry Welty (Unity), 2%