Campaign for the Capitol 2010

From a young age, Matt Entenza knew what it felt like to have his back against the wall.

Abandoned by his alcoholic father at age 15, Entenza and his family moved from California to rural Worthington, Minn., where they wrestled with poverty, homelessness and health care coverage.

“You learn that there are times when you have to take a stand,” he said of his family’s struggle.

Now he’s hoping to take a stand again — this time from the governor’s office.

With a degree in environmental studies from Macalester College, Entenza began his career working at a nonprofit organization for Paul Wellstone. A liberal Democrat, Wellstone would go on to become a U.S. senator and Entenza’s “first big mentor.”

Entenza then went to England, where he studied law at Oxford University. After that stint overseas, he returned to finish his law degree at the University of Minnesota.

He put that degree to work and made a career of fighting corruption and deceit. First from the Minnesota Attorney General’s office, where he took on telemarketers who were “ripping people off,” and then as an assistant attorney for Hennepin County, taking down white-collar criminals.

Entenza said he thinks his attorney experience will work to his advantage. Businesses that exploit their position to gain a profit are one of the biggest problems today, he said.

But atop the list of his priorities is education, which he says needs to be fixed. Programming at his old high school in Worthington and at the University have declined, and tuition is higher than ever, he said.

“I just feel very lucky that I grew up in Minnesota, because we were the kind of state that had really strong public schools,” he said. “If I had grown up in a lot of other states, I would have never had those opportunities.”

Those opportunities brought him into politics.

Entenza was elected to the House of Representatives in 1994. Representing the St. Paul area, he sat on the education committee for several years, fighting for an increased investment in education and against the No Child Left Behind Act.

He said a lack of “tough” politicians has caused schools throughout Minnesota to suffer and is responsible for “the worst recession in 50 years.”

“Being tough is taking on the favored elites and saying, ‘We’re not going to put up with some of the stuff you’re doing,’ ” he said.

In 2003, he was elected House minority leader at a time when the Republicans held a 28-seat majority. His work as a campaign organizer for Democrats helped them come within one seat of the majority by 2004 and then gain it in 2006, the year he stepped down as minority leader and left office.

Entenza is able to count high-profile politicians and interest groups as supporters, including U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and the Stonewall DFL Caucus — the first DFL caucus endorsement of the governor’s race.

“Matt combines toughness with vision and compassion,” said Mel Duncan, executive director of Nonviolent Peaceforce.

Duncan met Entenza while working for Wellstone in 1984. He said he believes Entenza is the candidate who can best solve Minnesota’s problems.

“We’re electing a person who can engage all of us, whether it be in Worthington or Minneapolis, on bringing us out of the mess that we’re in as a state,” he said.

But Rory Koch, a legislative assistant of the GOP Caucus, is concerned that Entenza’s financial policies may guide the state into troubled waters.

Koch ran against Entenza in 2000 and 2002 but was defeated by a margin of more than 50 percent both times.

“It would be a tax-and-spend direction,” Koch said of his former opponent’s platform, “and we need fiscal accountability and common sense.”

Koch is supporting Republican candidate Marty Seifert in this year’s gubernatorial election, but he made it clear that he has nothing but respect for Entenza.

“Matt is a very clever, very intelligent man, but I just think his priorities are wrong on spending and tax policy,” he said.

In 2007, Entenza founded Minnesota 2020, a think tank that considers options to solve the state’s problems with health care, education, transportation and economic development.

“I think there’s a real advantage to having spent the last couple years thinking about where the state should go,” he said of the organization.

Others are not convinced. During an interview earlier this month on Minnesota Public Radio, Gov. Tim Pawlenty called Entenza’s motives into question.

“It should have been called ‘Project 2010,’ because it was about Matt’s desire to run for governor in 2010,” he told MPR’s Gary Eichten.

But Entenza said he wasn’t disturbed by Pawlenty’s remarks. He prides himself on being a thorn in Pawlenty’s side.

“As long as I know I’m standing up for the right thing, it doesn’t bother me that there is criticism,” he said. “The governor certainly isn’t going to give me a job.”