Perpich, who faces a tough re-election fight for a fourth term, blames the criticism on Boschwitz, whom he accused of trying to horn in on the spotlight. “[Boschwitz] almost fell down the airplane stairs trying to act like President Gorbachev’s Siamese twin,” Perpich said. Boschwitz, who flew to Minnesota in Gorbachev’s plane, says that’s nonsense. “It’s all just goofy,” says the senator’s press secretary, Tim Droogsma (an unsubtle reminder that Perpich has been called “Governor Goofy”). “We need to get the governor on decaf. He’s just wound a little too tight.” Durenberger,who has political troubles of his own, stayed out of the fray. “[He] enjoyed the people at his table,” says Press Secretary Lois West. “He’s a grassroots kind of person.
