I was being vetted for
the Department of Labor and Industry.
Arne was really proactive about women,
and he wanted to have the first woman
over at Labor and Industry.
So that’s what I was doing.
I was with the Medical Association
doing health care reform
and doing public policy and public health,
and it’s doctors’ day at the Capitol.
And at that time we just had beepers.
And the message was,
don’t bother me when I’m at the Capitol.
And they kept beeping and beeping.
Finally, the governor sent out two Capitol police
– as he would, right? –
to find me,
dragged me into the governor’s reception area,
and there was all kinds of Democrats there
… they had some Republican legislators there,
and they said,
“We need you to go to Department of Health.”
I said, “But you already have a commissioner of health – John McCally.”
And they said,
“We need you go to the Department of Health,"
"and by the way, we fired everybody"
"We need you to continue to get rid of everyone in the office"
"– everyone."
And I said, “Really?”
And it was really the Mayo docs
who talked me into doing it.
They said, “No, you need to do this.”
So, finally I said,
“Gee, I really have to think about it.”
And the governor in his
– which he’s always impatient –
“Look, can you get back to us in two hours?”
And so I said, “I at least want to talk to my husband.”
So, I called Dennis, and he said,
“Well, what do you want to do?”
And I said if I can do health care reform
– that’s what drew me in was the governor said,
“We need you to spearhead health care reform.”
And I said,
“If I can do health care reform that would be great.”
Well, John McCally was resigned under pressure in two weeks,
and I was presenting to Lee Greenfield’s committee,
the Minnesota Department of Health budget,
because he also was asked
not to go over to the legislature at all.
And then Lyle Schwarzkopf,
who was the governor’s chief of staff at that time,
walked in in the back,
and then of course everybody knew what was going on.
So, I excused myself,
I went with Lyle,
we went over to the Senate Republican offices,
because the press were going crazy,
and we went into the janitor’s closet,
and we had a discussion.
He said, “The governor wants to know"
"if you would like to be commissioner.”
And I said,
“Lyle, the governor’s got to make a decision."
"I do health care reform,"
"or I’m commissioner."
"I can’t do both.”
Because doing health care reform,
where we had Paul Ahlgren’s bill
– it was going to be extremely controversial –
and I did not want to be caught sideways on that issue.
And so he called Arne,
and he got back to me in 10 minutes and said,
“He wants you to do health care reform."
"It’s his most important issue.”
But his request of me
was that I would serve as acting
until they got a new commissioner
and that I would, along with two other people,
participate in choosing the new commissioner.
So, that’s how we ended up interviewing Marlene,
and Marlene had just retired,
and she agreed to come on for a year.
And that’s
kind of how it happened.