[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 173 (Wednesday, December 22, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10992-S10994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO RETIRING SENATORS


                              Byron Dorgan

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to my 
colleague, Senator Byron Dorgan. This is his last day voting in the 
Senate. He is retiring after serving the people of North Dakota in the 
Congress, the House, and Senate, for 30 years. But Byron's record in 
North Dakota goes even beyond that--another 12 years in State office, 
so a total of 42 years of serving the people of North Dakota.
  I want to first say I am not objective when it comes to Byron Dorgan 
because he is my best friend. We have been friends and allies for all 
of those 42 years. In 1968 I was running a campaign to lower the voting 
age in North Dakota and first met Byron Dorgan, a young tax 
commissioner--very young, in his twenties, appointed after the previous 
tax commissioner took his life. Byron had extraordinary responsibility 
thrust on him at a very young age, the youngest statewide official in 
our State's history. Byron disposed of those responsibilities with real 
distinction, becoming recognized as the most influential State leader, 
even more influential than the Governor of the State, by a major 
publication in North Dakota.
  I met Byron Dorgan in that year and was so struck by his ability, his 
charisma, and his vision for our State and our Nation that I thought: 
This is somebody I want to work with in my career.
  We started a friendship that has lasted to this day. In 1970 I was 
helping run the reelection campaign of Senator Quentin Burdick, who 
served in this Chamber for more than 30 years. I got to know Byron even 
better then. In fact, my wife and I spent time with him and his wife. 
In the years that followed we became very close friends. In 1974, when 
I got back from business school, Byron called me and asked me to come 
to his office. I did the day after I returned home. We took a walk 
around the Capitol Grounds of the State of North Dakota and he talked 
to me about what he saw as the future--the future of our State, things 
that were happening in the country that needed to be addressed, and how 
the two of us might, working together, change that future and make a 
difference.
  I agreed that day to be his campaign manager for the House of 
Representatives. In that campaign, Earl Pomeroy, now North Dakota's 
lone Congressman, was the driver. I was the campaign manager. Byron is 
always quick to point out it was the only election he ever lost. He 
always said it was the fault of the campaign manager. I always said it 
was the fault of the driver. And Earl always believed we would have won 
if only he had been the candidate.
  Those were incredible days. I remember so well that campaign, the 
three of us--we bonded in a way that I think is very rare in politics 
and served together in a way that is unusual. There was never the kind 
of competition that often exists between Members. But there was always 
a keen friendship and a real partnership. We were allies, fighting for 
North Dakota, fighting to

[[Page S10993]]

change the country, deeply committed to each other and to our State.
  After that campaign Byron asked me to be his assistant. Weeks later 
he hired Lucy Calautti. Lucy, years later, became my wife, so I have 
always credited Byron with bringing us together. We were also joined by 
my college roommate who became another assistant to then tax 
commissioner Byron Dorgan, a young man named Jim Lang, a very dear 
friend of mine, an absolute genius, and the four of us worked to build 
the Democratic Party in North Dakota and to change the political 
landscape.
  Those were incredible times. We fought great battles for a coal 
severance tax in North Dakota, for an oil severance tax, things that 
helped build the financial base for our State.
  In 1980, Byron announced that he would seek North Dakota's lone seat 
in the House of Representatives. I ran to succeed him as tax 
commissioner. Lucy, who by then was somebody for whom I had great 
respect, was his campaign manager in that race for the House of 
Representatives. Byron was successful, and I was successful in a year 
in which no other Democrats were successful in our State.
  We then had a period of time, 6 years, before the Senate race in 
which Byron was in Washington, I was in North Dakota, and we campaigned 
together day after day, weekend after weekend, month after month, all 
across North Dakota, building a movement, a movement that resulted in 
my running for the Senate in 1986.
  It was really Byron's turn. He could have chosen to run, but he 
decided not to, and so I did, in a race that many thought was 
impossible for me to win. I started out more than 30 points behind the 
incumbent. He had over $1 million in the bank. When I got into the 
race, I think I had $126. But Byron Dorgan was my ally in that race 
every step of the way. I think very few others would have done what he 
did for me. I think very few other Members of the House of 
Representatives, having someone else leapfrog them to come to the 
Senate, would have put themselves on the line as much as Byron Dorgan 
did for me in that Senate race in 1986. But he was with me in every 
corner of the State fighting tooth and nail, an uphill battle in which, 
as I said, I started out 38 points behind.
  But on election day, I won a very narrow victory, winning by about 
2,000 votes over an incumbent who had won his previous race with over 
70 percent of the vote and a man who really looked like a U.S. Senator, 
Mark Andrews--6 feet 5 inches, booming voice, white mane of hair, very 
powerful speaker. Yet I was able to win that race in a squeaker, and I 
never could have without Byron's extraordinary assistance and support.
  For a period of time that I was in the Senate, he was in the House, 
and then in 1992 I announced I would not seek reelection to my seat 
because I made a pledge in that 1986 campaign, and the pledge I made 
was that I would not run for reelection unless the deficit was 
dramatically reduced. If you have reviewed 1992, you know the deficit 
was at a record level. After the first Bush administration, deficits 
were at record levels. So I announced I would not seek reelection, in 
keeping with my pledge. Byron Dorgan announced for my seat, and there 
was Lucy helping to run Byron's campaign for what was my seat in the 
Senate--a remarkable time in our lives.
  Then later that year, Senator Burdick, the other Senator from North 
Dakota, died. The Governor called me and said: Kent, you have to run to 
fill out the 2 years of his term; otherwise, North Dakota is going to 
lose all its seniority in one fell swoop, lose all of Senator Burdick's 
more than 30 years of seniority. We are going to lose Byron's 12 years 
of seniority in the House because he is running for your seat in the 
Senate, and we will lose your 6 years of seniority if you do not run to 
fill the term of Senator Burdick.
  I have always remembered that the media in North Dakota took a poll 
on whether I should run to fill the 2 years of Senator Burdick's term, 
and even an overwhelming majority of Republicans thought I should run. 
So the Governor told me there would be a special election after the 
regular elections in November. He said: Look, you have kept your 
pledge. You did not run for reelection to your seat. Byron is running 
for election to your seat. You would be in a special election in 
December.
  So I agreed to run, and Byron and I were running simultaneous 
campaigns for the Senate in 1992, he for my seat in the regular 
election, and I was running for the special election in December. Once 
again, we crisscrossed North Dakota campaigning together, making our 
case, and both of us won very big victories in 1992.
  From that time period forward until today, Byron and I have served 
together representing the State of North Dakota--best friends. What a 
remarkable story.
  I can still remember one of the publications here on the Hill--I 
can't remember if it was The Hill or Roll Call--when the two Senators 
from Mississippi were fighting for the majority leader position, ran a 
cartoon that said: Why can't the two Senators from Mississippi be more 
like the Senators from North Dakota--friends forever. And Byron and I 
have been friends forever and will be friends forever.
  After the 1992 race, we both served North Dakota, and, unlike so many 
delegations, we did everything we could to support each other. I can't 
think of a time when there were ever angry words exchanged between 
Byron Dorgan and Earl Pomeroy and myself. It was what many people back 
home called Team North Dakota. And we have been a team, as close as you 
could be.
  During Byron's time in the Senate, he has been a fierce fighter for 
policies that benefit average people and also somebody very suspicious 
of corporate power. He passionately opposed what he thought were 
misguided trade policies that contributed to jobs moving overseas. He 
was one of a handful of Senators who warned against consolidation and 
the excessive risk that would result from repealing the barriers 
between commercial and investment banking. He warned at the time, in 
what has become a famous speech, that if we passed that legislation, we 
would face a financial crisis in the years ahead. That prediction looks 
prescient today in light of the financial collapse of 2008. He was a 
leader in fighting for farm policies to benefit family farmers and 
ranch families rather than corporate agriculture. In the midst of it 
all, he wrote two books: take this job and shove it--or ``Take This Job 
and Ship It'' and ``Reckless! How Debt, Deregulation, and Dark Money 
Nearly Bankrupted America.''
  Most importantly, Byron Dorgan had a vision, an energy, and a 
persistence that has played a huge role in building the prosperity of 
our State.
  Robert Kennedy once said: ``There are those that look at things the 
way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask 
why not?'' That is really the way Byron approached service to North 
Dakota. He did not see limits; he saw opportunity.
  He looked at our university system and technology industries and saw 
no reason they could not be built into the Red River Valley Research 
Corridor that could power the economy of eastern North Dakota. And he 
set about making it happen, and he has succeeded.
  He looked at our energy industry and saw no reason North Dakota could 
not be the energy powerhouse for the Nation. Through his position on 
the Energy Committee and the Energy and Water Subcommittee of 
Appropriations, he helped build North Dakota into one of the leading 
energy-producing States in the Nation.
  He looked at the growth of the knowledge industries and the Internet 
and saw no reason North Dakota could not be wired with the same 21st-
century telecommunications infrastructure as the rest of the country. 
He used his position on the Commerce Committee to get that done as 
well.
  The results of his work can be seen in every corner of our State. 
Modern highways and air terminals, new and improved water 
infrastructure, a booming energy and agricultural economy, high-tech 
companies springing up everywhere across our State, the strongest 
economic growth in the Nation, the lowest unemployment rate in the 
Nation--by any measure, North Dakota is doing very well. Most of that, 
Byron will tell you, is because of the hard work and good judgment of 
the people of North Dakota. But among them, no one has worked harder or 
smarter on behalf of North Dakota than Senator Byron Dorgan.

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  Let me close by saying that I do not know of a harder working or more 
productive person than Byron Dorgan. He produces extraordinary amounts 
of high-quality work. He is type A squared, but he never forgot his 
roots.
  Byron Dorgan grew up in Regent, ND, a town of 300. He often reminds 
us that he graduated in a class of nine and he was in the top five. He 
is proud of that background, he is proud of that heritage, he is proud 
of our State, he is proud of our Nation, and we are proud of him.
  I will miss Byron Dorgan's partnership here every day, but I know he 
will be with us because Byron Dorgan will never be far from the fray. 
Byron Dorgan has served this body well, served the Nation well, and 
served our State extraordinarily well.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken.) The Senator from Colorado.

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