Photo by Karin Elton Former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger answers questions from the audience Wednesday at SMSU. He and Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant were in Marshall to talk about the book they co-wrote and state and national politics.

MARSHALL — Democrats and Republicans mixed freely Wednesday afternoon in the Conference Center Ballroom at Southwest Minnesota State University and no one was the worse for it.

Both groups were happy to hear what former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger and Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant had to say about Minnesota and national politics.

The two drove to Marshall to promote their book, “When Republicans Were Progressive,” and give tips on how people can overcome differences for the greater good.

Durenberger said Sturdevant was behind the wheel and he got to look out the window and the drive brought back a lot of memories.

“She drives and I make comments about every community we go through,” he said.

Noting Bob and Mary Meffert in the audience, two longtime local Republicans, he said he has a “picture of them, their children and their grandchildren that I will treasure.”

Durenberger, a St. Cloud native, was a Republican senator from 1978 to 1995, becoming the only Republican U.S. senator from Minnesota to be elected to three terms.

Co-written with longtime Star Tribune columnist Lori Sturdevant, “When Republicans Were Progressive” is a combination of Durenberger’s firsthand account of his time in the U.S. Senate, anecdotes about Minnesota politics, a look back at bipartisanship among political parties, remarks about the current political scene, and a platform for positive change.

One person in the audience, retired SMSU history professor Mike Kopp, said he has always voted Democrat — but he did vote for Durenberger.

Sturdevant says he gets that a lot.

Voting across party lines is rare these days.

“Politics is making us uncomfortable — the right, the blue, the red, the left,” Durenberger said. “Part of that is social media. When I got out of the Senate in 1995 there was only one cable news network and that was CNN. There was no Facebook.”

In the 1960s Durenberger worked with Harold Levander at their law firm and then when Harold Levander got elected governor in 1967, he made Durenberger his chief of staff, then called executive secretary. The Republican party was progressive back then, Durenberger said.

“We had a two-thirds conservative majority in the House and almost two-thirds conservative majority in the Senate.” The majority created a new state agency in 1967, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, three years before the national EPA. Also the nation’s first Department of Human Rights, which advanced the cause of civil rights, was among the other progressive examples of the party’s platform. Durenberger said working in Levander’s office “shaped my whole (political) experience.”

“Just think about how different that Legislature’s mindset was,” said Sturdevant.

Durenberger says one attribute a political leader must have is the ability to inspire. And you trust them. When I was close to retirement, people would say, ‘You know, I didn’t always agree with you, but I trusted you, that’s why I voted for you. Can you say that today?”

As a senator, Durenberger got to observe leaders such as Ronald Reagan up close.

“He was an optimist. Was he more conservative than other people? Yes, but in here,” Durenberger said, gesturing to his heart, “he was a positive man who saw not a vision for himself as we have now, but a vision for the country.”

Durenberger knows when things changed nationally.

“Of all the senators that I came to disrespect the most was (Republican U.S. Senator from North Carolina) Jesse Helms. He was a one-issue senator. And that was ‘I’m going to decide how to run this country. Even (Chief of Staff and then Secretary of State) Jim Baker and Ronald Reagan didn’t have the power to take on Jesse Helms.”

Durenberger said the “Motor Voter Act” was passed to increase voter registration, but the south didn’t want people to have the convenience of registering to vote at the same time they were registering their vehicles so it ultimately failed.

“The fewer voters the better,” he said. “That was part of the reality of the subtle change that was taking place in the national Republican Party.”

The Minnesota Republicans were called at one time Independent Republicans.

“Why did we call ourselves Independent Republicans — it was because the national party was changing,” he said.

Durenberger said George H.W. Bush worked with Congress to get a bipartisan overhaul of clean-air rules. George Mitchell was the Senate Majority Leader.

“George Mitchell believed his job was to get things done no matter who was the president,” he said.

Durenberger said when he left office there was only “one climate-denier, Jimmy Inhofe of Oklahoma — he’s still there. Today every one of them is a climate-denier. You can’t tell me that quickly — either the science turned or they changed their minds. That’s totally partisan.”

The senate was close-knit when Durenberger served.

“A whole lot of us didn’t have to be there,” Durenberger said. “We had two astronauts, two World War II heroes … Jack Danforth of Missouri was the heir to the Ralston Purina fortune. He pointed to Jay Rockefeller and said, ‘I’m no longer the richest guy in the senate.'”

Another one was Dick Lugar, who recently died, Durenberger said.

One time Durenberger’s son was graduating from high school as well as Dick Lugar’s son.

“Ted Kennedy on a Saturday had a big bill and he needed a vote and we wanted to be across the street (at the graduation), but he said ‘I won’t take any votes until you guys get back.’ It seems like a little thing but it tells you how close people can become,” he said.

That camaraderie fell by the wayside when Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney and Phil Gramm came to power, Durenberger said.

“Everything I ever did of any significance, I did with Democrats,” he said. “That’s the only way to get things done. You have to reach across the aisle. We’re one America.”

Sturdevant said to make politics more bipartisan again there has to be change.

“We are talking about systemic change, less time campaign fundraising and our favorite idea is ranked-choice voting. If you have a ballot with multiple candidates to give a choice — first choice, second choice and third choice.”

Durenberger noted that just because Gov. Tim Walz is a Democrat, when he talks about “One Minnesota,” he doesn’t just mean Democrats, “in fact it’s an invitation to those of us who are more conservative or more liberal or progressive or whatever you want to call it, to think about who we are and who we want to be.”