Once a DFL stronghold, retiring Rep. Gene Pelowski reflects on 38 years serving Winona

NINA MOINI: Some notable lawmakers won't be on the floor, when legislators reconvene in Saint Paul next week for the start of the session. 20 lawmakers resigned or retired last session. Longtime DFL Representative Gene Pelowski is retiring after representing the city of Winona for 38 years, and he joins us now. Thank you for being here.

GENE PELOWSKI: Thank you. I appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: Over the last 38 years-- gosh, that is a long time-- I wonder if you've been reflecting a lot on what some of your big moments and proudest moments were.

GENE PELOWSKI: Well, I've kept a daily journal since January of the first year, I was elected, which would be 1987. So I'm looking at the shelf it's on now. It's about 7,000 pages. So when you talk about reflection, I've got all of these journals that I'm now working on an epilogue journal. And I've used these in my American government class at Winona State, and I also use it in the class I teach at at Winona State for teaching social studies in the secondary. So yeah, reflection would be one way of putting it.

NINA MOINI: You were reflecting daily. Yeah, I always want to journal, too, because it's like a collection of your memories. But it's hard to keep up. But you're a good example there. I'm curious why now was the time for you to step away from this role?

GENE PELOWSKI: My wife and I had decided over a year ago in our discussions that it was just time to be here. And unfortunately, my wife passed away in October. So we had set a lot of plans. And now I'll be doing things, but I just won't be doing them with her.

NINA MOINI: You were influential in the creation-- just to pick one of the things you were influential on-- the North Star Promise act, which provides free college tuition for Minnesota families that make less than $80,000 a year. What has been the impact of this legislation? What has it been to watch it unfold and now that we may not see more student loan reforms happen in the next four years under the Trump administration.

GENE PELOWSKI: Well, we've seen a dramatic increase in enrollment in both our two and four year colleges in the Min state system and then also in the undergraduate level at the University of Minnesota. We desperately need to make higher education affordable because we need skilled employees.

We've all seen the signs all over our communities-- hiring now, hiring now. And whether it's a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, or people in technology or welders, all of them, we need to have people that are skilled to go into those jobs. And we simply priced people out. Because of the North Star Promise, we're going to bring in a lot of people again who will have the skill sets who will fill those positions.

NINA MOINI: There are lots of conversations still happening over the 2024 election and how districts changed and the makeup of voting changed. And you obviously were popular for many years-- for 38 years. This time around, the district went to a Republican. How has your district changed, and why do you think that happened?

GENE PELOWSKI: Well, I think if you just take a look at greater Minnesota, the Democratic Party, the DFL, has now almost nonexistent in greater Minnesota. You see the Republican Party dominating greater Minnesota, and you see the Democratic Party dominating the metro areas. And it's almost an even balance now. Well, it literally is an even balance depending on how things are going to work out.

And it's unfortunate that it's now become a partisan problem. There was a time when we would have DFLers from greater Minnesota, and you'd also have Republicans from certain areas in the metro. But that's almost all disappeared. And that divide now is part of our problem with just being a Republican or a Democrat. It's also the area that you're representing.

NINA MOINI: What do you think it would take to correct some of that?

GENE PELOWSKI: What do I think it would take to correct it? Well, unfortunately, it's a national trend, too. You've seen the partisanship in the national elections exactly the same way we've seen it now in the legislature. People have asked me-- and you just brought up the question of 38 years-- how do you represent your district over 38 years? And I've always used this. I represent the district first. I represent the state second. I represent the nation third, and the party last.

And that served me well for 38 years. What's going on now, particularly in Minnesota politics, is you represent the party first. And you're elected as a Democrat or a Republican running in a district. But once you're elected, you have to represent the entire district. You just don't represent the Democrats or the Republicans. And I think the both parties have lost sight of that.

NINA MOINI: Well, last fall, speaking of just divided government and working together, you said at a summit that you thought it would be a good thing for the Minnesota legislature to have divided government. In other words, the Republicans would take control of one of the chambers. And that didn't land too well with everybody. But do you stand behind that? Do you think it's good for Minnesotans that one party, in this case, the Democrats, no longer have full control?

GENE PELOWSKI: That was said at the Minnesota Rural Electric statewide meeting that was at the Mall of America. And I was in a discussion with Representative Garofalo. And I think that's been taken a little bit out of context given the discussion that we had that day. But yeah, balance in government I think is a good thing, and that balance should be maintained. That's why we have a House and the Senate in order to balance things out so that one part of the government doesn't continually have complete control. And I think it works well in partisan politics, too.

NINA MOINI: Do you have hope that folks will work together this coming session? There's already some things that are going on that suggest that it's going to be a difficult go.

GENE PELOWSKI: I was hopeful when the number was 67-67 and they had worked out co-chairs of committees. They'd worked out even a co-speakership. And all of that seemed to be accepted by both sides. And then the problem came with the individual who resigned on a residency issue. And now you've got-- the Republicans are doing what I think the Democrats would have done, too, in this situation. And that's unfortunate.

You've made an agreement. Well, that agreement no longer exists because of what happened in that one district. It's too bad both sides couldn't have taken the high road.

NINA MOINI: And aside from what goes on among the parties, what do you think about the voters? What do people need to do to get in better touch with their constituents and voters and center their needs?

GENE PELOWSKI: Well, in this age of technology, you can literally contact your representative 24 hours a day, seven days a week by email. Or they have a Facebook page or Twitter or Instagram. So you can keep in constant communication. And that's one thing you can do. And also, when you communicate with them, make sure you're communicating as a local constituent.

I've always told my constituents, if you're contacting me, put your snail address, snail mail address on it so I know you live in the district. And then make sure whatever you're telling me you're telling me from your perspective, not from paste and copying something from some entity that's told you to contact them.

NINA MOINI: So that's from the voter side. What do you think that legislators and lawmakers can do to bring back some of positivity, some of the collaboration?

GENE PELOWSKI: I've been the advisor to the Winona model the legislature since I taught at Winona senior high in 1975. So I just was in my 49th year. And today I had a Zoom meeting. The Winona model legislature now has been replicated at Metro State. And Metro State held its model legislature with high school students in December. So we held ours in November. And we had 170 students from private, public, charter, and home schools, grades 5 through 12, in their own House, their own Senate, their own governor. And Metro did the same thing in Saint Paul-- and they got to use the Capitol, which was nice-- on December, I think 5 and 6.

Those types of programs, we desperately need. Now, both programs are nonpartisan. Students learn the value of public service. They learn how to debate, amend a bill in committee. They learn how to-- if they're in the House or Senate-- how to take that bill to the House or Senate and how to take it to the government. I think we need much more hands on learning of public service and what Minnesota government-- because that's what I was serving in-- how it works, and not a recitative how a bill becomes a law on page 444 of a textbook.

NINA MOINI: I'll leave you with the last word, Representative, if there's anything that you want to say, anything you want to constituents or the state to know or any hopes for our state.

GENE PELOWSKI: I just want to thank the residents of my legislative district for 38 years. It was an incredible experience. I learned a great deal. And I can't thank them enough for giving me that responsibility. And I want to emphasize that I did try, over those 38 years, to represent the district first and the party last.

NINA MOINI: Thank you so much for your time, Representative Pelowski. Congratulations on your retirement.

GENE PELOWSKI: Thank you. I appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: That was former Representative Gene Pelowski, a DFLer from Winona. And tomorrow we'll hear from retiring Republican Representative, Pat Garofalo, of Farmington.