Ventura Haunts Minnesota Senate Race as Barkley Taps Voter Ire

Nicholas Johnston
Bloomberg
Monday, Oct 20, 2008

Minnesota has seen this movie.

Ten years ago, a gregarious professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura, won the race for governor by tapping into voter anger and running as a third-party candidate.

This year, Dean Barkley, Ventura’s former campaign manager, is trying to produce a sequel by vying for a U.S. Senate seat. While one of the major-party candidates is favored to win the race, high economic anxiety and Congress’ record-low approval ratings have given Barkley a lift in state polls.

“Something’s got to be done and I don’t think Republicans or Democrats can do it,” Gary Lilya, a 64-year-old Democrat said after meeting Barkley at a diner in Rochester.

The race already had developed into one of the most closely watched in the country, with comedian Al Franken, a Democrat, challenging Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman.

Democrats had counted on Franken, 57, benefiting from the anti-Washington climate fueled by economic hard times. Enter into the race Barkley, who has a paid staff of two and $75,000 in campaign funds. He briefly served as a U.S. senator once already when Ventura appointed him to serve the final two months of Paul Wellstone’s term after the Democrat died in a plane crash in 2002.

Dead Heat

Barkley, 58, has changed the dynamic by turning the race into a dead heat. In a survey conducted by Quinnipiac University Oct. 8-12, Franken was ahead of Coleman by 2 percentage points, within the poll’s 3-point margin of error. Barkley, running this year on the Independence Party of Minnesota ticket, polled 18 percent, drawing almost equally from Democrats and Republicans.