Joe Atkins is in a dour mood.
The Inver Grove Heights Democrat is at the Capitol running his Commerce and Labor committee’s hearing on the Wakota Bridge reconstruction, which has been plagued by overages and delays. He grills Minnesota Department of Transportation employees, referencing figures off the top of his head that send engineers scrambling for phone-book-sized documents. He snaps at one MnDOT representative that the project “is the most unnecessary delay I’ve ever witnessed.” Then he adds with a smile: “We’d like to have a bridge built before we die, just so my hearse can be driven over the eastbound span.”
The hearing is a perfect example of the traits that have carried the 42-year-old Atkins so far so quickly: thorough preparation, a results-oriented sensibility, a sense of humor and an intuitive sense of when to compromise and when to go for the jugular. In short, the traits of a rising star.
So why does he seem stuck in the atmosphere?
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Atkins has never kept his ambition secret. He wants to be a U.S. senator. And for a while that’s where his career seemed headed. Elected to the Inver Grove Heights school board at 21, mayor of the city at 27 and a state representative at 37, he spent a decade winning valentines from both sides of the aisle and the punditry. He developed a mastery of the tax code.
“Not very sexy, but just understanding our rather overcomplicated system was pretty impressive,” says Wy Spano, a longtime political observer. When the session concluded, Politics in Minnesota heralded Atkins as First-Term Legislator of the Year.
His legislative accomplishments are many. Atkins pushed through consumer-safety bills that required fire-resistant cigarettes, and advocated to ban gift card expiration dates. He also garnered praise for reaching across the aisle for help. With Republican Sen. Geoff Michel, he founded the popular Minnesota 2020 caucus to study long-term policy issues. By the time he won his 2006 re-election campaign with 72 percent of the vote, his amiability, charm and drive had drawn comparisons to Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
Then he stalled.
He lost the House majority leader race to Tony Sertich. He backed away from the U.S. Senate race. Political observers questioned whether Atkins had the ability to navigate the minefields between competing interests. Others criticized him for some legislation, such as the “Truth in Music Act” (which would disallow members of popular bygone bands to pass new groups off as the real thing) saying it was intended for publicity, not results.
Atkins tries not to worry about it. “Every bill introduction I’ve made, I’ve believed in,” he says.
Then there’s the sense that he’s perpetually campaigning. “I go to football games and I coach and I teach religion and I do all these other things that I guess other people consider to be campaigning, and I do it because it’s fun,” Atkins says. “My friend said, ‘You never stop campaigning.’ And I said, ‘OK, I guess if that’s what they call campaigning, then I don’t.’”
So what’s next for Atkins? The U.S. Senate seems off the table, but some observers think he might have a good chance at the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010.
“He’s got a wide-open path to the gubernatorial nomination in 2010 if he plays this right,” says David Schultz, a political expert at Hamline University’s Graduate School of Management. Schultz says Atkins needs to stake his reputation on a few key issues and continue championing bipartisan legislation. “We’re ripe for that populist kind of position. It becomes a much more popular position and it becomes hard for the other side to tag you.”
Schultz and Spano say Atkins’ recent setbacks haven’t hurt him. He couldn’t have won majority leader, because lawmakers wanted someone from outstate. And he has another session—if not more—to continue proving that his committee is capable of tackling big issues, such as the Wakota Bridge controversy.
Atkins admits that “people from all walks of life” have asked about the race, and that he has considered it, but he says his focus is on his 2008 re-election campaign.
He says he runs for office when he sees unrealized potential, and he sees that now in the governor’s office. More important, though, he sees opportunities to give people a voice. And as long as he can continue doing that, he’s content serving anywhere.
“Obviously, I hope to have legislative achievements,” Atkins says. “But I’d rather be remembered as a person that treated other people fairly, that I was compassionate, that I stood up for people who needed help.
“If that’s all I’m remembered for, I’d be plenty happy.”
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