MANKATO — Ten elections. Seven opponents defeated (three of them twice). Zero losses.

Rep. John Dorn is officially done running for office after 20 years representing Mankato in the state House.

“My goodness, how did that happen?” Dorn wonders. “I don’t know if anybody ever represented Mankato for 20 years.”

The answer, according to a Minnesota Legislative Reference Library listing, is no — not in the House. The late Sen. Val Imm has the ultimate record, representing Mankato in the Senate for 33 years. But no one has come close to two decades in the House, where elections come every two years.

Dorn announced in late May he was retiring from the Legislature at the end of his current term. The close of the filing period last week — with Dorn’s name absent from the list of candidates — made it official.

“I wanted to leave while I was still able to run out every ground ball, give 100 percent,” he said.

Dorn leaves with his undefeated streak, with the Mankato record for service in the House and with his irrepressible sense of humor all intact.

Amusing and unassuming

The retired Mankato East High School English teacher had a habit, when approached by reporters, of saying something outrageous and then imploring them to forget they’d heard it.

For illustrative purposes only, imagine a couple of years back when the House was locked up by contentious debates over a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and legislation to use state dollars to build pro sports stadiums. Dorn might have come up to a reporter saying he was putting the finishing touches on a bill to solve both problems, a bill involving a gay marriage center inside the new ballpark with the proceeds of the marriage licenses financing the stadium.

“Don’t write that down!” he might have yelled afterward.

Dorn could get away with some occasional jokes because when the issues were being decided, he didn’t mess around, say people who worked with him both inside and outside the Legislature. His specialty was probably K-12 education, but he was involved in committees dealing with higher education and chaired the House Health and Human Services Committee when it passed a massive welfare reform bill.

“When it came to education, there was probably no legislator who understood it better than John Dorn,” said Mankato Area Public Schools Supt. Ed Waltman.

State Education Commissioner Alice Seagren, a former Republican lawmaker who was on the House Education Committee with Dorn, described him as a guy “who always asked very thoughtful questions.”

A Democrat, he was also good at working with the varied personalities and philosophies of other lawmakers, said Seagren, who thought maybe his experience teaching English to eighth-graders might have been good practice.

“He worked with junior high students and that probably helped him deal with the junior high schoolers in the Legislature,” she said, laughing. “You have to have a good sense of humor, which John certainly does. He can laugh at himself as well as laughing at others.”

Quietly effective

Despite two decades in the House, Dorn leaves with no taint of any of the scandals that sometimes touch longtime elected officials — especially in Washington, D.C. Which made it easy for him, when approached by a reporter, to insist on making an opening statement before taking any questions.

“I’ve not yet been indicted,” he said. “And if it goes to trial, I’ll appeal the verdict.”

Dorn’s tendency toward self-deprecating humor is matched by a reluctance to tout his legislative accomplishments.

When asked to assess his career, Dorn didn’t bring up more than $100 million of state-funded construction that occurred at Minnesota State University and South Central College after he carried the legislation authorizing the funds. He didn’t mention his role in setting up the local option sales tax that built the Midwest Wireless Civic Center.

He didn’t point to the welfare reform legislation, regarded as one of the nation’s best, or to the numerous education reforms he sponsored — often on behalf of Mankato school officials.

“I always felt there were hundreds of people out there who could assist ably on any given issue, and I only had to play a part,” he said. “There were times when I felt things might have happened a little faster than they would have (without him).”

Waltman insists on giving Dorn a bit more credit.

Even in the final eight years of Dorn’s career, when Republicans controlled the House, he was able to move bills through the process because members of both parties liked him, Waltman said.

“I have such respect for the man,” he said. “Truly, his ethics and ability to work with people were just outstanding.”

He won’t be easy to replace, Waltman said.

“Not only did he have the energy, he had so much wisdom. And the wisdom is what we’re going to miss so much.”

Time to celebrate

People might also miss the wise guy. For instance, Dorn was asked to think back 20 years to the moment when he first decided to take the plunge into politics. Was he thinking this could be the start of a life-changing experience that could last for decades?

“Nah, I was drunk,” he deadpanned, quickly adding the inevitable, “Don’t write that down!”

For the record, he hadn’t really been drinking.

“Just the desire to be of service,” he said of his real reason. “That’s still what puts most people in one of those chambers.”

And he served well, Seagren said.

“He’s one of those good legislators we need more of as far as not being so partisan, being able to work across the aisle,” she said. “He served with distinction, and it’s an honor to say I served with him.”

Dorn seems uncomfortable with too much praise and has a ready list of stories to bring things down a notch — such as when his then-12-year-old daughter, Megan, let him know he was taking himself too seriously.

“I guess early on I didn’t leave work at work,” he remembered. “It was my first term. I guess I thought I was governor and I thought I had to make every crucial decision.

“And on Sunday night, my youngest said: ‘Mom, when Dad leaves, can we get a pizza and celebrate?’”

While his children are now all adults, his uncertainty about whether he wanted to continue spending 175 nights every year in St. Paul played a major role in his decision to retire.

But Dorn said his wife never pushed him to end his legislative career, despite the time away from home.

“She never said those infamous words ‘Get out, or get out,’” he said.

In fact, Kathy Dorn even helped him campaign.

“To the day I announced (the retirement),” Dorn explained, “Kathy said she was just as happy to see me leave for St. Paul as she was to see me come home.”