Arlan Stangeland
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Arlan Ingehart Stangeland (born February 8, 1930) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Minnesota. A Republican, Stangeland served on the Barnesville, Minnesota school board (1976-1977) and as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives (1966-1975) before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative from Minnesota's 7th congressional district in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert Bergland. Stangeland was reelected and served for six more terms (1977-1991). He lost his campaign for reelection in the 1990 House election, due largely to a scandal, and subsequently retired from politics.
Stangeland was born in Fargo, North Dakota, on February 8, 1930. He graduated from Moorhead High School in Moorhead, Minnesota in 1948. He worked as a farmer and was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives (1966-1975) and the Barnesville School Board (1976-1977). Stangeland was a delegate to the Minnesota State Republican conventions from 1964-1968.
[edit] 1977 election
Stangeland sought election as a Republican to the 95th Congress in a special election on February 22, 1977, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Robert Bergland, who left the House to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. In the primary on February 8, Stangeland defeated Richard Franson, "a frequent candidate who lived in Minneapolis, far from the district,"[1] with 97 percent of the vote.[2]
Stangeland ran against the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nominee Michael J. Sullivan, a former Walter Mondale aide, in the general election. During the campaign one controversy erupted when Roman Catholic bishop Victor H. Balke encouraged voters in the Diocese of Crookston to vote for Sullivan, who he described as "very pro-church," and Stangeland, who he described as having a "very negative" voting record in the state house.[3] Stangeland campaigned "on the theme that the heavily rural northwestern Minnesota needed another farmer, like Mr. Bergland, in Congress"[4] and won the election, receiving 71,251 votes to Sullivan's 43,467.[5] (Stangeland also defeated minor candidates Jim Born of the American Party and independent candidate Jack Bibeau).[6]
Stangeland's victory was a political upset. The New York Times headline the day after the election read "Minnesota victory elates Republicans" and attributed Stangeland's success to "his lifelong residence in the district, his roots as a farmer in a mostly rural area, and his identification as a Lutheran in an area that is predominantly Protestant".[7] and said Sullivan had been "handicapped by his Roman Catholic faith and his reliance on the support of name Democrats rather than grass-roots organizations."[8]
[edit] In the House and scandal
Stangeland was reelected to the six succeeding congresses, serving from February 22, 1977 to January 3, 1991.
In January 1990 it was reported that Stangeland had made several hundred long-distance phone calls from 1986 to 1987 on his House credit card to and from the residences of a female lobbyist from Virginia. Stangeland admitted that he had made the calls, acknowledged that some of them may have been personal, but denied having a romantic relationship to the woman.[9][10] His popularity sharply dropped and Stangeland lost the 1990 election to Democrat Collin Peterson.
Stangeland is married with seven children. He is a resident of Barnesville.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Minnesotans voting today on Bergland's House seat." Associated Press: 8 Feb. 1977.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Naughton, James M. "Minnesota victory elates Republicans." New York Times: 24 Feb. 1977.
- ^ "Minnesotans voting today on Bergland's House seat."
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Apple, R.W., Jr. "In Minnesota politics, a test of character." New York Times: 30 Oct. 1990.
- ^ Rasky, Susan F. "The 1990 elections: Four issues and how they played at the polls before uncertain voters." New York Times: 8 Nov. 1990.
| Preceded by Robert Bergland |
United States Representative for the 7th Congressional District of Minnesota 1977–1991 |
Succeeded by Collin Peterson |
