A Tribute to Paul Wellstone

December 2002

With the tragic death of Senator Paul Wellstone, the nation lost one of its strongest advocates for poor and working people. A few short weeks before the tragic accident he met with Local 535 political director Jerry Fillingim and Minnesota SEIU State Council political director Amy Bodnar. Fillingim shared his memories of the meeting in Washington DC with the Dragon:

“He was a strong advocate for working people and the working poor. He talked about how he was working on his Senate colleagues to improve the welfare reform bill by adding more money for childcare, mental health, and substance abuse programs. He was urging them to expand the education options under welfare so that rather than forcing people into minimum wage employment, the goal of the program would be to give people the tools to get off welfare permanently.”