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RUDY PERPICH: Like the Mississippi--

CURTIS GILBERT: On October 9, 1989 DFL Governor Rudy Perpich dragged a phalanx of reporters from the State Capitol all the way up to the headwaters of the Mississippi, four hours north. When they arrived, he made a 46-second long announcement.

RUDY PERPICH: It is my hope that you will allow me to continue to serve you as governor of Minnesota.

CURTIS GILBERT: That was it. Perpich refused to take questions. It was the kind of unorthodox behavior that led Newsweek magazine to brand him "Governor Goofy." Dane Smith was a senior political reporter at the Star Tribune back then, and he covered Perpich.

DANE SMITH: He was prone to outbursts, and he would attack the press. He dyed his hair. By today's standards, he'd be a pretty conventional politician. But at the time, he was considered a little offbeat.

CURTIS GILBERT: Rudy Perpich was already Minnesota's longest serving governor, and he was seeking an unprecedented fourth term. Polls showed he was vulnerable. His own former commerce commissioner challenged him in the primary. But Perpich went out.

RUDY PERPICH: You worked hard. We worked hard together. We made it.

CURTIS GILBERT: There was also a tough primary battle on the Republican side. The front runner going in was Arne Carlson. He'd served as state auditor for more than a decade. He was well known around Minnesota, and he was widely regarded as the Republican Party's best stump speaker.

ARNE CARLSON: Over 75% of Minnesotans have said it's time for a new governor. We must fulfill that wish.

CURTIS GILBERT: But Carlson was also a moderate, even a liberal Republican. And that made him deeply unpopular with party regulars. Former reporter Dane Smith remembers there was another candidate who was more in line with the increasingly conservative Republican base.

DANE SMITH: This fresh lantern-jawed, swashbuckling, handsome, rugged, hardcore conservative guy named Jon Grunseth.

JON GRUNSETH: This is our year of opportunity. This is the time, the time when we finally bring mediocrity to an end in Minnesota.

CURTIS GILBERT: The party faithful loved Grunseth. But he was still relatively unknown. He'd never held public office. He trailed in the polls. And looking back now, Arne Carlson remembers brimming with confidence.

ARNE CARLSON: I think it's fair to say that we knew at the outset we were the odds on favorite to win the primary, and the polls subsequently verified that, but the voters did not.

CURTIS GILBERT: Carlson lost in a landslide. After nearly 20 years in state government, his political career appeared to be over. For the next month, Grunseth's poll numbers climbed. It looked increasingly likely he could be the next governor. But then on October 15, just three weeks before election day, the Star Tribune ran a front page story, the headline screamed allegations rocked governor's race, and the accusations involved Grunseth, a swimming pool and four teenage girls. Elizabeth Mulay was one of them.

ELIZABETH MULAY: Jon Grunseth and a couple of his friends came out and tried to coax us into taking off our suits, and I'll go skinny dipping. When I went up, somebody commented that I still had my suit on, and I still refused to take it off. Jon Grunsfeld started chasing me and blocked me in the edge of the pool and went to pull down my strap with one hand and the other to grab my breast.

CURTIS GILBERT: Mulay said the incident had happened nine years earlier, when she was only 13. Two other women corroborated the story, but Grunseth denied the charges.

JON GRUNSETH: I have no intention of withdrawing from this race.

[CHEERING]

CURTIS GILBERT: Grunseth produced witnesses who swore he was asleep in bed at the time of the alleged incident. He paid for and passed a lie detector test. Grunseth called it a smear campaign, and he claimed his opponent was behind it. These are lies. Rudy Perpich knows they are lies. But Rudy Perpich is himself, the supreme liar, and he will do anything to stay in office.

RUDY PERPICH: I mean, how could you say that I'd have anything to do-- I mean, how could you orchestrate something like that? I mean, how in your wild imagination? No, nobody in my staff has had any contacts with any of that.

CURTIS GILBERT: One of the girls who backed up Elizabeth Mulay's story had DFL ties. But there was never any hard evidence that linked the Perpich campaign to the allegations. The public didn't know who to believe, and it was clear both campaigns were damaged. With only 15 days left in the election, Republican Arne Carlson restarted his campaign. This time as a write in candidate.

ARNE CARLSON: Poll after poll shows that the majority of Minnesotans would vote for anyone other than the two now on the ballot, and that void has to be filled.

CURTIS GILBERT: Polls also suggested Grunseth refusal to withdraw from the governor's race was helping a long shot DFL candidate for the US Senate.

PAUL WELLSTONE: I'm running for this office to turn politics right side up.

CURTIS GILBERT: College Professor Paul Wellstone was challenging two-term Republican Senator Rudy Boschwitz, who'd appeared nearly invincible before the scandal. Nine days after the Star Tribune first ran with a pool party story, its Minnesota poll showed the Senate race had tightened into a statistical dead heat. Boschwitz said either Grunseth or Carlson needed to quit and quickly.

RUDY BOSCHWITZ: My party is really in turmoil. We have a situation here where two Republicans are running, and one Democrat is running. I mean, our base simply is not big enough to cut it in half.

CURTIS GILBERT: On the evening of October 25, now with 12 days to go in the race, the Republican Party called a news conference television and radio carried it live. Jon Grunseth stepped to the mic with his withdrawal speech in hand.

JON GRUNSETH: I came here tonight to withdraw from this race. But--

CURTIS GILBERT: But he ripped the script in two. He vowed once again to fight on. His advisor Elam Baer later explained the campaign staff wouldn't let Grunseth drop out.

ELAM BAER: The reaction was overwhelming to the point of people tossing chairs on the floor against the wall, saying, you have got to stay in this race, and if you don't think you can win, you owe us a good fight.

SPEAKER: Gubernatorial Debate, 90 is a production of KTCA-TV.

CURTIS GILBERT: October 26, 11 days to go, the first and only debate of the bizarre three-man race John Stanoch ran the perpitch campaign, and he drove the governor home that night the governor's wife, Lola, was in the car too.

JOHN STANOCH: And I remember him saying to Lola, well, mother, we we're going to win this one.

CURTIS GILBERT: The debate was on Friday. But two days later, on Sunday, now with nine days left before the election, the Star Tribune published new allegations this time, that Jon Grunseth had carried on a long running extramarital affair. Grunseth disputed the story. But it was clear he couldn't survive another scandal. That night, he dropped out for real.

JON GRUNSETH: I had reached this decision with three factors in mind, my family, the Republican Party, and the people of Minnesota.

CURTIS GILBERT: The Republican Party held its nose and threw its support to Arne Carlson. It was too late to tap anyone else, and it wasn't until November 1, just five days before the election, that the state Supreme Court ruled Carlson and his running mate could appear on the ballot. The chaotic 1990 campaign led to an astounding result. Voters still suspected governor Perpich had something to do with the scandal, and they handed Arne Carlson a narrow win.

Senator Rudy Boschwitz was damaged by the turmoil in the Republican Party, and that helped Paul Wellstone score an upset victory. It all could have turned out differently if a 22-year-old woman named Elizabeth Mulay hadn't come forward with her allegations three weeks earlier, and the impact went beyond the 1990 election. Arne Carlson served two full terms as Minnesota governor.

Paul Wellstone represented the state in the US Senate for the next 12 years. He was seeking a third term when he died in a plane crash in 2002. Rudy Perpich died of cancer in 1995. Jon Grunseth left the state and moved to Tasmania. He didn't respond to an interview request. And Dane Smith left the Star Tribune to lead a liberal think tank. Looking back on the Grunseth debacle, his feelings are mixed.

DANE SMITH: I wanted to do some thoughtful pieces on the important sober discussion of the issues. And instead, I ended up with this soap opera, and I have to admit it was exciting.

CURTIS GILBERT: But Smith says the most dire predictions made in the aftermath of the 1990 governor's race never materialized. Many observers said the election signaled a new era of dirty politics. But as this year's governor's race demonstrated, Minnesota is still capable of holding a campaign focused on the issues. Curtis Gilbert, Minnesota Public Radio News.