Former Vice President Walter Mondale, a civil rights activist who lost a White House offer in one of the largest electoral college landslides in US history in 1984, died Monday evening at his Minneapolis home. He was 93 years old.
Mr. Mondale died peacefully of natural causes, said Kathy Tunheim, a family spokeswoman. He has received numerous calls from past and current political leaders in the past few days and enjoyed sharing memories with them, she said.
Mr. Mondale, the 42nd Vice President, was credited with strengthening the office’s status as he was deeply involved in shaping politics, influencing administrative appointments and conducting foreign policy negotiations.
“I was the first Vice President to work with the President in the White House on a daily basis,” Mondale said in a 2008 documentary about his life.
Before agreeing to be Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Democratic runner-up, Mr. Mondale – known to family, friends and many voters as “Fritz” – wrote a memo setting out his expectations if they should win. One of Mr Mondale’s requests was that he be invited to all cabinet meetings and that the two men speak at least once a week.
President Carter speaks to Congress on April 21, 1977, accompanied by Vice President Walter Mondale and then Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill.
Photo:
Associated Press
Mr. Carter, a little-known former Georgia governor, needed a Washington veteran to build public confidence in his ability to rule the nation. At the time, Mr. Mondale had worked in the capital for more than a decade.
“Today I mourn my dear friend Walter Mondale, whom I consider the best vice president in our country’s history,” Carter said in a statement on Monday evening. “During our tenure, Fritz used his political skills and personal integrity to transform the Vice Presidency into a dynamic, political driving force that has never been seen before and still exists today.”
Mr. Carter called Mr. Mondale an “invaluable partner and able servant to the people of Minnesota, the United States, and the world,” a model of public service and private conduct.
Prior to his tenure in Washington, Mr. Mondale was Attorney General of Minnesota in the early 1960s, having been selected for the office at the age of 32. He was appointed to the Senate in 1964 after Hubert H. Humphrey was elected Vice President and one of them was vacated from Minnesota’s seats in the Chamber.
Mr. Mondale first met Mr. Humphrey – who would later become one of his political mentors and encouraged him to take the vice-presidential position if offered – as a student. After graduation, Mr. Mondale did not have enough money to attend law school, so he joined the U.S. Army for two years before entering law school at the University of Minnesota.
Walter Mondale, then the Minnesota attorney general, throws the opening ball at a Twins game in St. Paul on April 22, 1964. He was appointed to the Senate later that year.
Photo:
Associated Press
During his 12 years as a senator, he was a member of the finance committee; the labor and social committee; the budget committee; and the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Mr. Mondale also served as Chairman of the Equal Opportunities Education Selection Board and Chairman of the Domestic Task Force of the Intelligence Committee.
He was one of the authors of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which aimed to end segregation and discrimination in mortgage and housing policies and improve the competitive environment. Mr Mondale later said the law had not reduced discriminatory practices as much as he had hoped.
As Vice President, Mr. Mondale played an important role in the negotiations between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin that led to the 1978 Camp David Agreement.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan easily defeated Mr. Carter after the hostage crisis in Iran, gasoline shortages, inflation and a general feeling that the nation was on the wrong track. Mr. Mondale returned to the private practice in 1981 and opened a business in the Winston & Strawn Washington office.
Just two years later, he officially announced his presidential offer from the capital of his home state in St. Paul. His main Democratic opponents included Reverend Jesse Jackson, former Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, and Senator John Glenn of Ohio.
Walter Mondale (center) defeated both Sens. Gary Hart (left) and John Glenn in the race for the Democratic President nomination in 1984.
Photo:
Associated Press
A month after the nomination, Mr. Mondale made history by choosing a woman, US Representative Geraldine Ferraro, of D., NY, as his runmate. She was the first woman to be named vice president of a major political party in the United States, but her family’s finances and disclosure issues plagued the campaign.
At the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Mondale did something that most politicians don’t do while running for office: he promised to raise taxes, arguing that he was just more honest than Mr. Reagan. “He won’t tell you,” he announced during his acceptance speech. “I just did it.”
Mr. Mondale was no match for Mr. Reagan, whose show and sense of humor put his challenger to shame.
“I’m not going to make age the theme of this campaign. I will not use the youth and inexperience of my opponent for political purposes, ”Reagan joked during a debate when the Septuagenarian president was asked if he was too old to serve a second term. The line even asked their 56-year-old opponent for a big smile.
Mr. Reagan won a landslide and carried all states except Mr. Mondale’s home, Minnesota.
Walter Mondale is fighting for the presidency in Muscle Shoals, Ala on September 22, 1984.
Photo:
Lana Harris / Associated Press
As he assessed the results, Mr. Mondale said, “Reagan promised you ‘Tomorrow in America’ and I promised a root canal.”
The 1984 defeat wouldn’t be Mr Mondale’s last high profile defeat. In 2002, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone died just over a week before the elections in a plane crash that had far-reaching effects on Senate control. Mr. Mondale was recruited as the Democratic Party’s best chance of holding Mr. Wellstone’s seat in a competitive election against Norm Coleman, Republican Mayor of St. Paul.
After Mr. Wellstone’s sons asked the former Vice President to take their father’s place in the race, Mr. Mondale traveled by bus instead of plane, covering fewer areas than he otherwise could have done. Mr. Coleman won by just over 2 percentage points.
Mr. Mondale had returned to his hometown of Minnesota in 1987, where he worked as a lawyer with the Dorsey & Whitney law firm until President Bill Clinton appointed him US Ambassador to Japan.
Mr. Mondale was Ambassador from August 1993 to December 1996. During that time, he helped negotiate several US-Japan security agreements, including a resolution to the controversy over the US military presence in Okinawa. He also helped to forge numerous trade agreements between the United States and Japan and promoted the expansion of educational exchanges between the two nations.
Vice President Walter Mondale on a visit to Beijing on August 26, 1979.
Photo:
Bob Daugherty / Associated Press
Walter Frederick (“Fritz”) Mondale was born on January 5, 1928 in Ceylon, Minnesota. Mr. Mondale was the son of a Methodist minister and music teacher. His father spoke regularly about politics at mealtimes, and the family heroes were Franklin D. Roosevelt and Minnesota’s self-described radical Governor Floyd Olson, according to the Mondale Senate biography.
Mr. Mondale grew up in a family that shied away from self-promotion, an aspect of his upbringing that was often reflected in his public life. Even so, the avid fisherman occasionally bragged about the size of his latest catch.
The former vice president is survived by two sons, William and Theodore. His wife Joan died in February 2014 and his daughter Eleanor died in September 2011.
Write to John McCormick at [email protected]
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