A Minnesota Populist Tries to Crash the Millionaires' Club.

• Author: Nichols, John
• Position: Jerry Janezich

When 45,000 people hit the streets of Seattle to challenge the World Trade Organization last November 30, Jerry Janezich was in the thick of it. Marching with the United Steelworkers, he joined the demonstrations that changed America's debate about corporate power.

Eight days later, back home in Minnesota, the small-town tavern owner and Democratic state legislator announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

"The key question faced in Seattle," says Janezich, "will also be the key question of this century's first decade: Who will decide our future? Global corporations or you and I--the voters in a democratic society?"

That may not sound like typical rhetoric in Al Gore's Democratic Party, but Janezich has already secured the endorsement of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer Labor Party, along with the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state's Teamsters, the United Auto Workers, and the Steelworkers. He's won support from feminist and gay groups within the Democratic-Farmer Labor Party, and he has secured the backing of more than sixty fellow legislators and four of Minnesota's Democratic members of the U.S. House.

Plus, he's got Paul Wellstone.

"I stood side-by-side with Jerry in Seattle as we marched together for a voice for working men and women, farmers, and our environment," says the two-term Democratic Senator. "As a U.S. Senator, Jerry would continue to demonstrate his populist convictions with passion and action."

But can Janezich really make the leap from the streets of Seattle to the corridors of power? Wellstone and others think so, although they admit it will be a tough fight. Janezich believes he can beat Senator Rod Grams, a television personality-turned-politician, who won a victory when the 1994 Republican landslide swept traditionally liberal Minnesota. With a cookie-cutter conservative voting record and a penchant for personal scandal, Grams is widely seen as one of the more vulnerable GOP incumbents seeking reelection this year. A July poll conducted for Minnesota Public Radio found that only 39 percent of likely voters held a favorable opinion of the first-term Senator. And in a state where the Midwest farm crisis is devastating rural areas, the Republican's support for free market policies that favor corporate agribusiness makes him seem particularly out-of-touch this year.

Janezich couldn't be more different. "If corporate America wants free trade, we want human rights, fair labor standards, and fair environmental standards," he told...