Walter Mondale - Entry Into Politics

Entry Into Politics

Mondale became involved in national politics in the 1940s. At the age of 20, he was visible in Minnesota politics by helping organize Hubert Humphrey's successful Senate campaign in 1948. Mondale managed Orville Freeman's successful gubernatorial campaigns in 1956 and 1958. Governor Freeman appointed Mondale as Minnesota Attorney General in 1960, following the resignation of Miles Lord, and he won the post in his own right in the fall election. Mondale was 32, and four years out of law school, when he became attorney general of Minnesota. During his tenure as Minnesota Attorney General, the case Gideon v. Wainwright (which ultimately established the right of defendants in state courts to have a lawyer) was being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. When those opposed to the right to counsel organized a Friend of the Court brief representing several state attorneys general for that position, Mondale organized a countering Friend of the Court brief from many more state attorneys general, arguing that defendants must be allowed a lawyer. He served for two terms as attorney general. He also served as a member of the President’s Consumer Advisory Council from 1960 to 1964. At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Mondale played a major role in the proposed but ultimately unsuccessful compromise by which the national Democratic Party offered the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party two at-large seats.