“There were two of them, they were there from the beginning,” Walz told the crowd, first introducing Solo, who had traveled the district with him for most of the final months of the campaign.

Solo, Mankato West High School class of ’98, was around the kitchen table with Walz, his wife, Gwen, and Salsbery in January 2005 — discussing the possibility of a congressional campaign.

They thought he should run and agreed to help. The campaign started in February.

“My name recognition extended to the end of my block at this point,” Walz said, laughing.

And his campaign account was at zero.

Solo, as political director, and Salsbery, the communication director, were assigned to change that. Solo had run the Democratic campaign office in south-central Minnesota in 2004, so she did a variety of duties for the Walz campaign before surrendering them to others as they came on board.

In the frenetic final three months before the election, Solo traveled with Walz. She also worked with organized labor, which provided a major boost to the campaign.

But it was only late in the campaign, when more and more staff and volunteers were available, that Solo could focus on a couple of duties.

“For the year and a half before that, I did everything,” she said.

If the final months of the campaign were about momentum, the early months were about inertia. The election was nearly two years away and nobody who mattered — other than Tim and Gwen Walz and a couple of local supporters — really thought he could knock off a 12-year veteran congressman.

Gutknecht, after all, had never lost an election — a 14-victory winning streak including primary elections and state House races.

“It was one of the toughest things for the first year to get people to think this was a competitive race and that we weren’t just tilting at windmills,” Solo said.

The voice

Walz, standing before the crowd at the Holiday Inn pointed to Salsbery: “The levelheaded one who said ‘Now take a deep breath before you say anything, and think about it.’”

Her most visible role was as spokeswoman for the campaign and as the one who connected reporters to Walz. But Salsbery also gave Walz ideas on refining what he said to people across southern Minnesota, researched issues to help prepare position papers that were posted on his Web site, and helped him practice for the numerous debates that were to follow.