Senator dies in plane crash

EVELETH, Minn. -- Sen. Paul Wellstone was killed Friday when his small chartered plane crashed near an airport runway, Democratic sources said.\nThe source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 58-year-old senator, in the midst of a grueling re-election campaign, died along with members of his family and staff as well as two pilots.\nWellstone's campaign manager confirmed the death of the lawmaker -- one of the Senate's most prominent liberals -- in the final days of his campaign for a third term in the Senate.\nGreg Martin, a spokesman for the FAA, said the plane went down about two miles from a runway in a wooded area.\nWellstone's campaign had chartered the craft to ferry the senator and his traveling party to a funeral.\nWellstone won his seat in 1990 in an improbable upset, and was trying to hold onto it in the face of a strenuous challenge from Norm Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul.\nLiberal to the end, he cast his vote earlier this month against legislation to authorize the use of force in Iraq --virtually the only Democrat in a competitive race to go against President Bush on the issue.\nIn political terms, Wellstone's death threw the battle for control of the Senate into uncharted territory.\nPresumably, his name will remain on the ballot. But with a lame duck session of Congress looming, there was no immediate information on how his seat would be filled.\nMinnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is an independent who has made his career by scorning the two major political parties.