'Exhausted' Mondale skips Covenant Network appearance By John H. Adams The Layman Online Friday, November 8, 2002 MINNEAPOLIS – Following a decisive defeat in his 11th hour candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, Walter F. "Fritz" Monday canceled his scheduled appearance at the annual Covenant Network Conference. His minister, the Rev. Tim Hart-Andersen, said Mondale, 74, was "exhausted" from the brief but intensive campaign to seek the Democratic seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone. "Fritz will not appear," Hart-Andersen told about 250 people who attended the worship service Nov. 8 in Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis. Mondale is a member of the congregation and Hart-Andersen is its pastor. Hart-Andersen said Mondale, who was vice president during the administration of President Jimmy Carter and was overwhelmingly defeated when he ran for president against Ronald Reagan after Reagan's first term, was looking forward to speaking to the Covenant Network Conference. He said he and Mondale had spoken at length about the engagement and his brief return to the political arena. Mondale decided to run for the Senate seat because of "his sense of vocation," Hart-Andersen said. "He agreed that the decision to run was a theological issue, whether God was calling him." Mondale announced his candidacy the day after the Oct. 25 "memorial service/political rally" for Wellstone, as Hart-Andersen described the event. In the days between that service and the Nov. 5 election, Mondale "did his party well and did his church well. His concession speech was a classic, delivered with aplomb and grace." "I've been on the phone with Fritz," Hart-Andersen added. "He's exhausted. He conveys his sorrow at not being able to be here. He's a man committed to justice." Mondale was to be the Covenant Network's headliner, but his appearance was scheduled long before Wellstone's death and Mondale's decision to try once again to win an elective office.

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