A former senator-turned staffer takes reins for Minnesota freshman congressman

TheDC: What were you doing in private life before this job?

Before I came to Congress…my main thing for 25 years was I was in radio and television. And the last 22 years I was a TV anchorman. So I was working in journalism and broadcasting.

So when I left the Senate, when I came back, I went back to that. My wife and I bought three radio stations here in Minnesota that we own and operate.

Right now while I’m doing this with Chip, all that kind of work falls on my wife’s shoulders. She’s managing the stations now and doing all the work that we share. She’s always worked there with me, or should I say, I worked with her.

When I get done here working with Chip, I’ll just go back and continue doing that.

TheDC: What are the tangible ways Rep. Cravaak has gotten off to a good start?

Well, you know, he’s a Navy veteran. He’s a pilot. He flew for the Navy. He flew for Northwest Airlines. So a lot of that, to get out of the blocks, he’s got on good committees. He’s worked very well. He’s got some good committee assignments. He’s going to be on the aviation subcommittee of the Transportation Committee.

He’s met with a number of groups like the Corps of Engineers, Forestry officials, and so on, outside of the committee structure because of some of the important issues in Minnesota dealing with mining and forestry and things like that.

So he’s been very proactive already trying to get out, and we’ve encouraged him to do this. So he’s done a good job at that.

When I was in office, I know that goes a long way. Because you have to work with these agencies. You don’t always agree with the direction they might be going in. But they have a lot of respect for you, and you need to show the respect for them.

He’s done that. He’s reached out. So I think he’s going to create a good working relationship on some of these issues that are important to Minnesota.

Ed. note: this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.