Mark Dayton
Mark B. Dayton
Background
Mark Dayton was born in Minneapolis and raised in a house in Long Lake, where his father still lives today. He has two grown sons, Eric Dayton and Andrew Dayton, and currently lives in Minneapolis.
Education
Dayton attended Long Lake Elementary School and Blake School in Hopkins. He graduated, cum laude, from Yale University, in 1969.
The Teachers, Inc
After Yale Dayton worked in New York for The Teachers, Inc.
After college, Dayton taught 9th grade general science for two years in a New York City public school.[1]
- It was the toughest job I’ve ever had! My conscience was seared by the terrible injustice that my students had so little, while I had been given so much; and I decided that I would devote my life to improving social equality and economic opportunity for all Americans.
In 1970 Dayton worked at the Charles Sumner Junior High.
Boston
Dayton worked as Social Services agency in Boston from 1971-1975 as a "streetworker."
Radicalism - "Enemies List"
Mark Dayton has long aligned himself with radical causes.[2]
- I have always fought hard for the causes I believed in, whether they were popular at the time or not. I strongly opposed the Vietnam War, for which I was the only Minnesotan named to then-President Nixon’s “Enemies List.” I was one of only 23 Senators to vote against the 2002 Iraq War Resolution, along with Minnesota’s great Senator Paul Wellstone.
Public office
Dayton was a U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 2001 to 2007. he was a member of the Democratic Farmer - Labor Party.
He has served as Commissioner of the Minnesota Departments of Economic Development and of Energy and Economic Development, and as State Auditor.[3]
China trips
August 03, 2005 United States senator Mark Dayton, met with Sheng Huaren, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of the 10th NPC Standing Committee.[4]
A delegation of the U.S. Senate arrived in Beijing August 7 2006 to hold the third meeting with the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislative body.
Information from the NPC source showed, issues of China-U.S. relations, Taiwan, China's peaceful development, bilateral trade and other regional and international issues would be on the agenda of the meeting.
The issues with the global concern such as energy, bird flu, anti-terror campaign and the Olympic Games will be also discussed by the Chinese and U.S. parliamentary members, the source added.
Chinese president Hu Jintao and Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo held talks with the delegation respectively in Beijing , covering the issues of bilateral relations and other regional and international issues of common concern, according to the NPC information.
The U.S. delegation, invited byWu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, was led by Ted Stevens, president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, and Senator Daniel Inouye. Other delegation members include Senator Thad Cochran, Senator Arlen Specter, Senator Patty Murray, Senator Mark Dayton, Senator Lamar Alexander, Senator Norm Coleman, and Senator Richard Burr.
The NPC and the U.S. Senate set up a regular meeting mechanism in 2004, which made the Chinese legislative body the fifth partner of such exchange mechanism with the U.S. Senate. The other four are the counterparts from Britain, Canada, Mexico and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Under the framework of the mechanism, the two sides held two rounds of meetings in Beijing and Washington D.C. respectively.
The NPC statistics showed that, in the year of 2005 alone, over20 delegations with more than 100 U.S. senators and congressmen paid official visits to China.[5]
Wellstone Action
In 2009 Mark Dayton was listed as a member of the Advisory Board[6] of Wellstone Action, a Minnesota based organization based on the political legacy[7] of that state’s late ‘progressive” Senator Paul Wellstone.
- Wellstone Action and Wellstone Action Fund combine to form a national center for training and leadership development for the progressive movement. Founded in January 2003, Wellstone Action's mission is to honor the legacy of Paul and Sheila Wellstone by continuing their work through training, educating, mobilizing and organizing a vast network of progressive individuals and organizations.
References
- ↑ Mark’s Biography, Mark Dayton for a Better Minnesota website, accessed September 3, 2010
- ↑ Mark’s Biography, Mark Dayton for a Better Minnesota website, accessed September 3, 2010
- ↑ Mark’s Biography, Mark Dayton for a Better Minnesota website, accessed September 3, 2010
- ↑ [http://www.chinavitae.com/vip/index.php?mode=events&type=ncv&sn=Dayton&gn=Mark China Vitae accessed September 3, 2010
- ↑ U.S. Senate delegation arrives in China GOV.cn August 7, 2006
- ↑ http://www.wellstone.org/about-us/board-directors
- ↑ http://www.wellstone.org/about-us/our-mission-goals