Harry Welty

Harry Welty is a local politician in Minnesota who has run unsuccessfully for 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 as an independent under the "Unity" banner.
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 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." In April 1998, after finding himself in a war of words with the teachers' 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.
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.
Electoral history
*1995 - 2004 Duluth School Board
** Harry Welty served as a board member.
*2000 Race for Minnesota State Senate - District 6
** Douglas J. Johnson (DFL) (83.7%)
** Harry Welty (Republican) (16.3%)
*2002 Race for Minnesota State House - Dist. 7A
** Harry Welty (Republican) (37.8%)
** Tom Huntley (DFL) (61.9%)
** Write-In (0.3%)
*
**Jim Oberstar (DFL) (inc.), 64%
**Rod Grams (Republican), 34%
**Harry Welty (Unity), 2%

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