Remembering former Chief Justice ‘Sandy’ Keith

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A.M. “Sandy” Keith, believed the first person to serve in all three branches of Minnesota government, had a long career marked by one of Minnesota’s fieriest political fights and one of its saddest broken political friendships.

He died on Oct. 3 at age 91.

Keith, a Rochester native who earned a law degree at Yale University in 1953, lived an eventful life. A U.S. Marine first lieutenant during the Korean War, he served three years in the Minnesota Senate before becoming lieutenant governor.

He withdrew to a private law practice after a bitter primary fight in the 1966 race for governor, reemerging in 1982 as an early champion Rudy Perpich’s unlikely gubernatorial comeback. Perpich then named him to the Supreme Court in 1989, elevating him to chief justice with Peter Popovich’s retirement in late 1990.

Keith died 22 years after leaving public office. But he never quite stopped making his presence felt, friends say. Up to his final years, he continued issuing political endorsements and championing humanitarian, environmental and local Rochester business causes.

He would sometimes publicly critique those he thought were messing up — occasionally even within his own party. For example, he wrote a stinging op-ed rebuke of DFL U.S. Rep. Bill Luther in 2002 after Luther encouraged a supporter to run as a “No New Taxes” party candidate to siphon votes from rival GOP candidate John Kline.

“He had both a solid, ethical base for what he believed about political life and a practical one,” said Wy Spano, a longtime DFL political consultant and friend of Keith’s. “But he also was willing to say it. He was judge-like in that way. On some issues, he just seemed to feel that he had to make a call.”

In a written statement, sitting state Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea called Keith a “dedicated public servant” who gained a national reputation for his support of alternative dispute resolutions.

“He will be fondly remembered as a principled leader who was devoted to improving the statewide court system, addressing racial and gender inequities in the justice system and ensuring access for all Minnesotans to the legal system,” she said.

Keith was chief justice from 1990 to 1998, retiring at age 69. One of his successors, Eric Magnuson, called him a “really good chief justice” and an effective administrator who adroitly negotiated with lawmakers to fund the Judicial Branch.

“Sandy was really, really good with people,” Magnuson said. “He really was very approachable. He was very open. I think he promoted collegiality on the court, which is important because it’s a unit that has to work together.”

Crazy campaign

Keith never won the office he was said to covet most: Minnesota governor. But on three occasions during his career, his actions had an outsized impact on who would hold that office.

The first was in 1966, when Keith was lieutenant governor. In a then unheard-of move that sent shudders through Minnesota politics, Keith challenged incumbent Gov. Karl Rolvaag. Many saw it as a bid by the handsome, youthful Keith to steamroll Rolvaag, publicly perceived to be Keith’s quiet, unassuming boss.

Keith and a slate of DFL candidates for Cabinet posts were all endorsed by the DFL party that year. But Rolvaag challenged in the primary, beating Keith by a two-to-one margin. Rolvaag then lost the general election to a virtual unknown GOP candidate, Harold Levander.

What the public didn’t know in 1966, according to Spano, was that the alcoholism that would wreck Rolvaag’s public service career in 1975 was already warping his ability to function as governor by 1966. The decision by Keith and other DFL Party bosses to challenge Rolvaag had everything to do with that, Spano said, though no one at the time would say so publicly.

“That in itself was kind of an expression of that quality of doing the right thing, doing the sort of ethical and responsible thing for the state — to make the governorship well,” Spano said. “But he didn’t feel the need to reveal why this was happening.”

Bob Latz, a former House member, was there. He ran beside Keith as the DFL-endorsed candidate for attorney general. All these years later, Latz, now 91, still won’t discuss Rolvaag’s alcoholism. But he does not dispute Spano’s account. And he openly agrees with Spano that — even factoring in the candidate’s undeniable political ambition — Keith in 1966 was trying to do what was best for both the state and the DFL.

“I think he felt, as many did, that Rolvaag was a candidate who was going to be defeated,” said Latz, who lost that year’s attorney general primary to DFL Conservation Commissioner Wayne Olson. Olson himself lost to Douglas M. Head — to this day, the last Republican state AG. “It was a matter of political survival for the DFL at that point.”

Latz said he thinks Keith would have been a good governor.

“He was very smart, he had good political instincts and he was a good lawyer,” Latz said. “I would not have given up my political career if I thought that Sandy would not make an outstanding governor.”

Sad ending

Kevin Burke, the now-retired Hennepin County District Court judge, met Keith in 1970. At the time, Burke said, Keith swore he was out of politics for good, albeit with a caveat. If U.S. Rep. Don Fraser should ever declare for U.S. Senate, Keith said would leave his practice and help Fraser’s campaign, Burke said. Fraser did that in 1978, but lost that year’s primary to Bob Short.

Keith re-emerged publicly in 1982 as a Perpich supporter — an unexpected move, given that Perpich had already served as governor and lost his post to the 1978 GOP electoral sweep still known as “the Minnesota Massacre.” Many saw Keith’s support as crucial to Perpich’s comeback, and upon reelection, Perpich rewarded his friend, first with a seat on the Supreme Court, then the chief justice’s post.

But their friendship came to a sudden and bitter end with the issuance on Nov. 1, 1990, of what is seen as Keith’s most noteworthy ruling on the Supreme Court — even though Clark v. Growe was an anonymous order on which Keith’s name appears nowhere.

The opinion upheld Secretary of State Joan Growe’s decision to place the names of Arne Carlson and Joanell Dyrstad on the 1990 ballot, replacing disgraced gubernatorial candidate Jon Grunseth — who was enmeshed in a sex scandal — and his little-known running mate, Sharon K. Clark.

Clark sued to keep her place on the ticket, but lost. Perpich reportedly felt that had Clark remained on the ballot, Republicans might place an arch-conservative on the ballot for governor, or perhaps shove Clark over to the main spot, paving the way for Perpich to easily win a fourth term.

Carlson, a moderate Republican, was a formidable candidate who eventually beat Perpich in the 1990 general election — perhaps the only election season on record to rival the raucous 1966 campaign.

Perpich never forgave Keith, said Burke, who knew both men well. He said the governor felt Keith should have signed onto the order’s dissent by justices Popovich and Lawrence R. Yetka.

Perpich did little to hide his enmity. A year later, he told the Hibbing Daily Tribune: “If Sandy Keith put a dagger in Karl Rolvaag’s back, he put a sword into the back of Rudy Perpich.” Keith responded that he hoped he and his old friend could get past it. Perpich died in 1995.

“As far as I know,” Burke said, “Sandy Keith and Rudy never talked again.”

Magnuson said the episode is a measure Keith’s integrity and willingness to place the law ahead of personal sympathies. “He was a man of principle and did the right thing, even though it might have come at a personal cost to him,” Magnuson said. “Which is what you expect your judges to do.”

‘A great man’

During his tenure on the Supreme Court, Keith took part in a total of 195 opinions, joining majorities the vast bulk of the time. He issued dissents, partial dissents and concurrences just 12 times during his tenure.

Gildea credits Keith’s background in family law as a driving force behind his efforts bring people together and help unify the court system as an institution, one geared toward fairly and efficiently resolving people’s problems.

“Sandy believed that judges must be accountable to the citizens of Minnesota, and amplified community outreach and engagement during his tenure as chief justice,” she said.

His greatest legacy in that area, she said, was Keith’s creation of the Supreme Court’s traveling oral argument program. More than 61,000 Minnesota students have participated in 50 traveling oral arguments since the program began in 1995, and almost 5,000 people have taken part in related community dinners.

“The court is grateful to Chief Justice Keith for his leadership on this and so many other important initiatives that made our justice system better,” Gildea said.

In his later years, Keith settled into a quiet role as a kind of resident Minnesota wise man, offering advice to people of all political stripes. In 2007, he became a board member to the conservative Center of the American Experiment.

Annette Meeks, who was that think tank’s CEO, ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 alongside gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. She said that when she announced, Keith was one of the first people to call and offer guidance.

People like that are hard to come by these days, Meeks said.

“Both parties would be well served to have elder statesmen that are willing to give them a good something when they need it,” she said. “He cared about doing what was right and honorable. He was a great man.”