# Rudy Perpich *Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor of Minnesota (1976–1979 and 1983–1991), under whom Minn. Stat. § 43A.191 was enacted as a 1985 budget rider.* Rudolph George Perpich Sr. (born Rudolph George Prpić; June 27, 1928 – September 21, 1995) was a [[Minnesota]] Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) politician who held the office of [[Governor of Minnesota]] from 1976 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991.[^1][^2][^3] He was the state's 34th and 36th governor, and no other Minnesota governor has been elected to non-consecutive terms.[^4] He took office on December 29, 1976, on the resignation of [[Wendell R. Anderson]]. On December 30 he appointed Anderson to the [[United States Senate]] seat left open when [[Walter Mondale]] became [[Vice President of the United States]].[^5][^6] This record's interest in Perpich rests on one statute. [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]], the State's agency [[affirmative action]] machinery, was enacted under Governor Perpich in the 1985 first special session. It entered as section 172 of an omnibus appropriations act (1Sp1985 c 13 s 172), a budget rider.[^7] The section's history line records thirteen amendments since then and no repeal. Perpich signed four of the amendments, and Republican governors signed seven.[^7] On January 14, 2026, the United States sued the State under [[Title VII]] in a complaint that cites the section eight times.[^8] The [[United States Department of Justice]] titled its announcement of the suit with the phrase "Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime".[^9] His administrations' other documented outputs include $21.7 million budgeted in 1983 for the first phase of comparable-worth salary adjustments.[^10] They also include his 1985 proposals for open enrollment and Postsecondary Enrollment Options.[^11] His name is also carried by the 1990 Supreme Court decision holding 9–0 that a governor could not block a National Guard deployment.[^12] ## Early life and education Perpich was born Rudolph George Prpić in Carson Lake, a community since absorbed into Hibbing, to Croatian American parents. His father, Anton, was a Mesabi Range miner and union organizer who was blacklisted from the industry for his organizing work. Perpich spoke no English until at least first grade. After finishing Hibbing High School in 1946, he spent two years in the U.S. Army. He then studied at Marquette University in Milwaukee, took his dental degree in 1954, and went back to Hibbing to work as a dentist.[^4] ## Entry into politics His first office was a seat on the Hibbing school board in 1955–1956; that board adopted equal pay for male and female workers.[^4] Voters sent him to the [[Minnesota Senate]] in 1962 from the old 63rd District in St. Louis County. He publicly opposed the Vietnam War in 1964 and won reelection in 1966.[^4] In 1970 he won election as the 39th [[Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota]]; at that time the two offices were still filled in separate elections. He was reelected in 1974 on a joint ticket with Anderson.[^4] In 1977, as governor, he nominated Rosalie Wahl, who became the first woman to sit on the [[Minnesota Supreme Court]]. [[Esther Tomljanovich]] and [[Diana E. Murphy]] were among the lawyers also considered.[^4] ## Gubernatorial campaigns Anderson's resignation took effect on December 29, 1976, and Perpich succeeded him as lieutenant governor. On December 30, Perpich named Anderson to the Senate.[^6][^13] The State's Legislative Reference Library biography gives the 1976 sequence in the State's own account.[^5] On January 25, 1978, Perpich appointed [[Muriel Humphrey]] to the Senate seat of Hubert H. Humphrey.[^14] On November 7, 1978, [[Al Quie]] (R) defeated Perpich by more than 110,000 votes.[^15] The loss was one of several across the statewide DFL ticket that year, a result called the "Minnesota Massacre".[^4] Wikipedia's account records that Anderson's arrangement and Perpich's part in the appointment were judged major factors in those defeats, and that his positions on gun control and abortion may also have contributed. A *Star Tribune* account attributes the losses to the party's handling of the 1976 appointment.[^4][^13] After the loss he served Control Data Corporation in New York and Austria as vice president for international affairs.[^4] In 1982 he challenged the DFL-endorsed candidate, [[Warren Spannaus]]. On November 2, 1982, he defeated Wheelock Whitney (R) for governor.[^4] He was inaugurated on January 3, 1983. On November 4, 1986, he won reelection over Cal Ludeman (R).[^4] His 1990 opponent, [[Arne Carlson]], succeeded him.[^4] [[Mark Dayton]] won the governorship in 2010 by 8,770 votes (0.4%). He was the first DFL governor since Perpich left office in 1991.[^16] ## Pay equity and education According to the project's time table, which cites Wikipedia, Perpich made implementing [[pay equity]] a top priority on taking office in January 1983.[^4] The State's own history of the program, *Pay Equity: The Minnesota Experience*, records two outputs that followed in 1983. Perpich appointed Nina Rothchild as Commissioner of Employee Relations, and he budgeted $21.7 million for the first phase of [[comparable worth]] salary adjustments.[^10] A document archived by the Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities places the start of Perpich's education-reform agenda in 1983, influenced by *A Nation at Risk*.[^17] In January 1985 he proposed the *Access to Excellence* reform package. That year he proposed Postsecondary Enrollment Options and open enrollment.[^11] The project's time-table rows date the open-enrollment enactment two ways. One row cites the Revisor's page for § 124D.03 and records that Perpich signed the Open Enrollment law in April 1988, the first statewide public school choice program in the nation.[^18] A second row cites *Kappan* and dates the Legislature's enactment of inter-district open enrollment to 1986.[^11] An Education Evolving history credits his school-choice agenda with laying groundwork for the 1991 charter school law.[^19] A further time-table row cites the Revisor's 1989 session-law index. It records that he signed the Profile of Learning standards framework on June 15, 1989, which it describes as the first state attempt at outcomes-based education.[^20] ## The equity statute (§ 43A.191) The chapter-43A vessel, [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.19]], was enacted in 1981 under Governor Quie, a Republican (Laws 1981 c 210).[^7] The operative § 43A.191 followed in the 1985 first special session as 1Sp1985 c 13 s 172, section 172 of an omnibus appropriations act, under Perpich (DFL).[^7] One claim:link row in the project's catalogue gives 1987 as the year Perpich signed § 43A.191.[^1] The Revisor's history line governs. It records the 1985 enactment and two 1987 amendments.[^7] The record does not establish Perpich's personal role in drafting the rider. The history line lists thirteen amendments, by governor: - Perpich: 1987 c 186, 1987 c 354, 1988 c 667 and 1990 c 571. - Carlson: 1992 c 513, 1995 c 248 and 1996 c 305. - Pawlenty: 2004 c 207, 2007 c 35, 2008 c 204 and 2009 c 101. - Walz: 1Sp2019 c 10 and 2023 c 62. Seven were signed by Republican governors and six by DFL governors, and none repealed the section.[^7] The 2019 and 2023 acts each amended § 43A.191 together with a second instrument now at issue in federal court. The 2023 act added a sentence providing for escalation to the governor, which the project confirmed by comparing the 2022 and 2025 texts.[^7] A time-table row dated December 2015 records that the section had by then remained in force through five governors: Perpich, Carlson, Ventura, Pawlenty and Dayton.[^7] ## United States v. State of Minnesota On January 14, 2026, the United States filed *[[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]]* in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The suit was brought under Title VII of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].[^8] The complaint cites § 43A.191 eight times. Its citations include the subdivision 3(c) requirement that an agency explain the reason for hiring a non-affirmative candidate.[^8] The Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs announced the suit in release No. 26-21. The release is titled *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*. Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^9] The case is pending, and the record here shows no ruling. The project's master table lists the 1985 Perpich enactment and the 1981 Quie vessel as the operating instruments at issue in the action.[^7][^8] The legal background includes *[[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]]*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025). In that case the Supreme Court held that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs". The Court also rejected the Sixth Circuit's heightened "background circumstances" rule for majority-group plaintiffs.[^21] The U.S. government uses "regime" as a term for governments it opposes. The [[Iraq Liberation Act]] of 1998 (Pub. L. 105-338) states a policy of supporting efforts to remove "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein".[^22] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages (note 40 of *[[How Minnesota Got Here]]*) finds Minnesota the only U.S. state so described. That is the catalogue's finding, not an independently established fact.[^22][^9] ## Perpich v. Department of Defense Wikipedia's account records that Perpich was criticized for using the Minnesota National Guard to protect Hormel Foods during the 1985–1986 Hormel strike. He opposed the Reagan administration's proxy war against Nicaragua and declined to send the Guard to Nicaragua to train with the Contra rebels.[^4] On June 11, 1990, the Supreme Court decided *[[Perpich v. Department of Defense]]*, 496 U.S. 334. The Court ruled 9–0 that a governor could not block the deployment of the state's National Guard.[^12] When Operation Desert Storm began on January 17, 1991, Minnesota National Guard units deployed.[^23] ## Colorful behavior and international goals As governor, Perpich gave a $25,000 pay raise to the promotion of bocce. He proposed a chopstick factory for northern Minnesota and suggested selling the governor's residence in Saint Paul to save money. *Newsweek* labeled him "Governor Goofy".[^4] Projects of his tenure include the [[University of Minnesota]]'s Natural Resources Research Institute at Duluth (1983) and the Center for Victims of Torture (1985). They also include the Minnesota World Trade Center (1987), the Perpich Center for Arts Education (1989), and approval of the Mall of America.[^4] He visited a record 17 countries in 1984 and brought Mikhail Gorbachev and Franjo Tuđman to Minnesota in 1990.[^4] In 2005 Carlson said Perpich "was the first person that I was aware of to focus on the international role that states are going to have to play."[^4] Minn. Laws 1996, chapter 412, article 9, sections 18–19, carry a Perpich naming provision with an instruction to the revisor.[^24] ## Post-political life After leaving office in 1991, Perpich went to Zagreb to assist Croatia's post-communist government. In 1992 he took a business consulting post in Paris. He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer that year and had surgery, but he never disclosed the illness publicly. He came back to Minnesota in 1993, and the cancer returned in 1995.[^4] He died at his Minnetonka home on September 21, 1995, aged 67. He is buried in [[Lakewood Cemetery]] in [[Minneapolis]].[^4][^25] His wife, former First Lady Lola Perpich, died on May 6, 2025.[^4] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Under Perpich, a Democrat, the operative § 43A.191 entered the statutes as a 1985 budget rider.[^7] ### What - The enactment is 1Sp1985 c 13 s 172, section 172 of an omnibus appropriations act.[^7] ### When - December 29–30, 1976: Perpich succeeds Anderson and appoints him to the Senate.[^6][^13] - January 3, 1983: Perpich's second governorship begins.[^4] - 1985 first special session: § 43A.191 enacted.[^7] - January 14, 2026: *United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273, filed.[^8] ### How many - Thirteen amendments to § 43A.191 and no repeals. Seven were signed under Republican governors and four by Perpich.[^7] ## Notes [^1]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Legislators Past & Present: Rudy Perpich* (undated) — governor 1976–1979 and 1983–1991; the row also gives 1987 for § 43A.191. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=10720 [^2]: Minnesota Historical Society, *Governor Rudy G. Perpich* (undated) — gubernatorial record. https://mnhs.gitlab.io/archive/governors-of-minnesota-collections/collections.mnhs.org/governors/index.php/10004129.html [^3]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Rudy Perpich* governor biography (undated) — gubernatorial service. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/mngov/governor?gov=37 [^4]: Wikipedia, *Rudy Perpich* (rev. 1380137944, retrieved 2026-10-25) — biography, campaigns, policies and legacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Perpich [^5]: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, *Gov. Rudy Perpich official biography* (undated) — the 1976 succession sequence in the State's account. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/mngov/govbio?govid=3 [^6]: Wikipedia, *Wendell R. Anderson* (retrieved 2026-10-25) — Anderson's December 29, 1976 resignation and December 30 Senate appointment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_R._Anderson [^7]: Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, *43A.191 Affirmative Action Programs in Agencies* (live history line) — enacted 1Sp1985 c 13 s 172; thirteen amendments listed by chapter; no repeal. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/43A.191 [^8]: U.S. District Court, D. Minn., *United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273, Complaint (filed Jan. 14, 2026) — Title VII action citing § 43A.191 eight times, including subd. 3(c). https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — title; Attorney General's certification of general public importance. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^10]: Minnesota Management and Budget, *Pay Equity: The Minnesota Experience* (undated) — 1983 Rothchild appointment; $21.7 million for first-phase comparable-worth adjustments. https://mn.gov/mmb-stat/pay-equity/Pay_Equity-The%20Minnesota%20Experience.pdf [^11]: *Kappan*, "Charter school path paved by choice, compromise, common sense" (undated) — 1985 *Access to Excellence*, PSEO and open-enrollment proposals; 1986 enactment. https://kappanonline.org/charter-school-path-paved-choice-compromise-common-sense-junge/ [^12]: U.S. Supreme Court, *Perpich v. Department of Defense*, 496 U.S. 334 (June 11, 1990) — 9–0 holding on National Guard deployment. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/496/334/ [^13]: *Star Tribune*, "DFL's mishandling of 1976 Senate appointment led to party's Minnesota massacre" (undated) — December 30, 1976 appointment and its link to the 1978 losses. https://www.startribune.com/dfl-s-mishandling-of-1976-senate-appointment-led-to-party-s-minnesota-massacre [^14]: Wikipedia, *Muriel Humphrey Brown* (retrieved 2026-10-25) — January 25, 1978 Senate appointment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Humphrey_Brown [^15]: Wikipedia, *Al Quie* (retrieved 2026-10-25) — November 7, 1978 defeat of Perpich by more than 110,000 votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Quie [^16]: Wikipedia, *2010 Minnesota gubernatorial election* (retrieved 2026-10-25) — Dayton's 8,770-vote margin; first DFL governor since 1991. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Minnesota_gubernatorial_election [^17]: Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities (archive), *00-HSE-MDE* (2000) — 1983 start of Perpich education-reform agenda influenced by *A Nation at Risk*. https://mn.gov/mnddc/past/pdf/00s/00/00-HSE-MDE.pdf [^18]: Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, *124D.03 Enrollment Options Program* — open-enrollment statute (time-table row: April 1988 signing). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/124D.03 [^19]: Education Evolving, *History and Origins of Chartering* (undated) — Perpich's school-choice agenda as groundwork for the 1991 charter law. https://www.educationevolving.org/resources/history-and-origins-of-chartering [^20]: Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, *Laws of Minnesota 1989* (session-law index) — cited by the time-table row for the June 15, 1989 Profile of Learning signing. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1989/0 [^21]: U.S. Supreme Court, *Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025) — Title VII disparate-treatment holding. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf [^22]: U.S. Congress, *Iraq Liberation Act of 1998*, Pub. L. 105-338 — "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein"; cited for the project's catalogue finding. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-105publ338/pdf/PLAW-105publ338.pdf [^23]: U.S. Department of Defense, Historical Office, *Desert Storm* (undated) — Gulf War began January 17, 1991. https://history.defense.gov/Multimedia/Experience/Desert-Storm/ [^24]: Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, *Laws of Minnesota 1996, chapter 412* — art. 9, ss. 18–19, Perpich naming provision and revisor instruction. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1996/0/412/ [^25]: Minnesota Historical Society, *MNopedia: Perpich, Rudy* (undated) — biography. https://www.mnhs.org/mn-history-encyclopedia/perpich-rudy