Jesse Ventura To Run for MN Senate,

[HeXploiT]

In an interview with NPR's David Welna that ran today former Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Ind-Minn., says he will run for Senate, challenging incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whom Ventura defeated for governor in 1998, as well as Democratic nominee and former Saturday Night Live humorist Al Franken.

Ventura, born Jim Janos, tells Welna that the main reason he's running is because of Coleman's support for the war in Iraq. "That's the reason I run," he says. "I run because it angers me...All you Minnesotans take a good hard look at all three of us. And you decide: if you were in a dark alley which one of the three of us would you want with you?

Ventura had a stormy tenure as governor and horrible relations with the Minnesota press corps. Thus, it was the June issue of a local wine magazine where he chose to drop hints about his pending campaign.

"I'm not a politician, I'm a statesman," he told Wineheads. "I do one term, and then I go back to the private sector. If I get back into the fray again this year, it's only because I've been gone five years back to the private sector. That's what I did when I was mayor. That's a statesman. That's not a career politician."

Ventura said of Coleman, "the guy has not had a job in the private sector his entire adult life. He's been collecting government checks since the day he got out of law school and went to work for the attorney general's office. So when Norm Coleman tells people in the private sector he feels their pain, how? He's never been in it. At least Al Franken knows what the private sector is. I would like to send him out and get a real job in the private sector."

Ventura called Franken an opportunist and a carpetbagger. "He hasn't lived here in 30 years, and he's only coming back to Minnesota for the convenience of his own political agenda. Why didn't he run in the states he was living in? Clearly, for being a Harvard graduate, he's not too smart on taxes, is he? Everybody laughs, saying I came from wrestling. But at least I knew when I wrestled in 40 states, I had to pay taxes in those 40 states. You just have to do the paperwork. I find it unbelievable that someone who could go to Harvard didn't know that or let it slip. Blaming his accountant is worse, because now he's turning into a politician. He's not accepting responsibility for his actions."

A recent state poll has Coleman leading with 52 percent of the vote and Franken with 40 percent.

A hypothetical race with Ventura shows Coleman with 41 percent, Franken with 31 percent and Ventura with 23 percent.

Of course, as this priced-to-move 1999 biography of Ventura recalls those poll numbers are far better than Ventura's numbers in his 1998 gubernatorial run. In June 1998, Ventura only had 7% support. In November, he won with 37% of the vote.

- jpt

Source:abcnews


Oh how I love to listen to Jesse Ventura speak. lol
The man deals in truth & logic with a little comedy and a sledgehammer.
Granted he's full of himself. Still a breath of fresh air however.😀

 

[yuppiejr]

Ooh boy, here we go again... In this apathetic political climate once again Jesse might actually have what it takes to win. As much as he can be a jackass and did a rather unimpressive job as govenor he might just be the sort of fresh breath of air that the establishment in congress needs. The idea of a self-made guy who doesn't give 2 shits about lobbyists or special interests money is highly attractive regardless of what letter he puts after his name. I'm pretty fed up with Coleman and don't consider Franken a serious candidate regardless of how many people he's snowed into supporting him... Interesting.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Oh that's beautiful Jesse! 😀

I love how he slams them career politicians into the ground like he did wrestlers back in the day. Except now its with words. Looking forward to more soundbites from this cat!

 

[LegendKiller]

Great, that dipshit can ruin the great state of MN for a 2nd time.

Only a fool, and/or somebody who doesn't live in MN, would think this is a good idea. I guess we know where three people here stand.

 

[Thump553]

From what I remember the people of Minnesota absolutely loved him at the beginning of his term as governor and generally depised him at the end.

Who knows, maybe he will upset the applecart enough to get Al Franken in there. That's the most likely result I see.

 

[ProfJohn]

I would think that this helps Coleman. It will split the 'I hate incumbents and politicians' vote. I expect that Franken will self destruct in a way similar to Alan Keyes when he ran against Obama for the Senate.

 

[Genx87]

Heh Coleman has to be thinking Jesse is a stalker.

 

[sportage]

If you ever been to Minn, MN you can see Jesse's work first hand.
I believe it was "he" that fought tooth and nail to get the mass transit
"Metro Transit light rail trains" to become reality.
If you ever visit Minn,MN this is a great mass transit system they have in place!

I'm an Al Franken fan, but Jesse really did cut thru the muck
and did some nice things for those folks, when he was in power.
And as Jesse often says, "it was not easy".
He had to buck the system head on and took a lot of heat from
the powers that be. But he won for the people.

If Jesse is really tossing in his hat, this has got to be very very very bad
news for the other two guys.

 

[Genx87]

Yes Jesse's toy train that cost over 1 billion to build. And serves about 12 people, mostly vagrants looking for somewhere to sleep.

But hey they are all excited and brag because our ridership for mass transit is approaching 1984 levels at 2008 prices.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: sportage
If you ever been to Minn, MN you can see Jesse's work first hand.
I believe it was "he" that fought tooth and nail to get the mass transit
"Metro Transit light rail trains" to become reality.
If you ever visit Minn,MN this is a great mass transit system they have in place!

I'm an Al Franken fan, but Jesse really did cut thru the muck
and did some nice things for those folks, when he was in power.
And as Jesse often says, "it was not easy".
He had to buck the system head on and took a lot of heat from
the powers that be. But he won for the people.

If Jesse is really tossing in his hat, this has got to be very very very bad
news for the other two guys.

Great, put in light rail, destroyed the school system, the rest of the infrastructure, ran the state into a deficit, and hurt numerous other areas.

What a great guy!

 

[GoPackGo]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Yes Jesse's toy train that cost over 1 billion to build. And serves about 12 people, mostly vagrants looking for somewhere to sleep.

But hey they are all excited and brag because our ridership for mass transit is approaching 1984 levels at 2008 prices.

Come on now...its heavily used for Twins and Vikings games.

And don't forget the Holidazzle Parade!

 

[GDaddy]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: sportage
If you ever been to Minn, MN you can see Jesse's work first hand.
I believe it was "he" that fought tooth and nail to get the mass transit
"Metro Transit light rail trains" to become reality.
If you ever visit Minn,MN this is a great mass transit system they have in place!

I'm an Al Franken fan, but Jesse really did cut thru the muck
and did some nice things for those folks, when he was in power.
And as Jesse often says, "it was not easy".
He had to buck the system head on and took a lot of heat from
the powers that be. But he won for the people.

If Jesse is really tossing in his hat, this has got to be very very very bad
news for the other two guys.

Great, put in light rail, destroyed the school system, the rest of the infrastructure, ran the state into a deficit, and hurt numerous other areas.

What a great guy!

exactly, grew up and still live in MN. The only thing Jesse is good for is sound bites. How i hope he does not fool the people again.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: GDaddy

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: sportage
If you ever been to Minn, MN you can see Jesse's work first hand.
I believe it was "he" that fought tooth and nail to get the mass transit
"Metro Transit light rail trains" to become reality.
If you ever visit Minn,MN this is a great mass transit system they have in place!

I'm an Al Franken fan, but Jesse really did cut thru the muck
and did some nice things for those folks, when he was in power.
And as Jesse often says, "it was not easy".
He had to buck the system head on and took a lot of heat from
the powers that be. But he won for the people.

If Jesse is really tossing in his hat, this has got to be very very very bad
news for the other two guys.

Great, put in light rail, destroyed the school system, the rest of the infrastructure, ran the state into a deficit, and hurt numerous other areas.

What a great guy!

exactly, grew up and still live in MN. The only thing Jesse is good for is sound bites. How i hope he does not fool the people again.

Ohhh, he fools RPBs and other libertopians. They hear his idiotic blather and automatically think he's so fucking awesome. It only goes to show how naive and ridiculous they are in their rubber stamping of any stupid idea that remotely fits with their libertopian "values", which have no place in modern society.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: GoPackGo

Originally posted by: Genx87
Yes Jesse's toy train that cost over 1 billion to build. And serves about 12 people, mostly vagrants looking for somewhere to sleep.

But hey they are all excited and brag because our ridership for mass transit is approaching 1984 levels at 2008 prices.

Come on now...its heavily used for Twins and Vikings games.

And don't forget the Holidazzle Parade!

Oh yes and with the new twins stadium their second toy train will land people coming in from Elk River and Anoka right at its doorsteps! Of course how does that help people who work on the other side of 394 in the downtown area get to work for the other 300 days of the year? Who cares, we have a TRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[brandonb]

Awesome. I'm voting for Jesse.

All I need to do is look at the ethnic origin of the other two candidates, and see they will bow to AIPAC and we'll be going to war with Iran. No thx.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: GDaddy

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: sportage
If you ever been to Minn, MN you can see Jesse's work first hand.
I believe it was "he" that fought tooth and nail to get the mass transit
"Metro Transit light rail trains" to become reality.
If you ever visit Minn,MN this is a great mass transit system they have in place!

I'm an Al Franken fan, but Jesse really did cut thru the muck
and did some nice things for those folks, when he was in power.
And as Jesse often says, "it was not easy".
He had to buck the system head on and took a lot of heat from
the powers that be. But he won for the people.

If Jesse is really tossing in his hat, this has got to be very very very bad
news for the other two guys.

Great, put in light rail, destroyed the school system, the rest of the infrastructure, ran the state into a deficit, and hurt numerous other areas.

What a great guy!

exactly, grew up and still live in MN. The only thing Jesse is good for is sound bites. How i hope he does not fool the people again.

Ohhh, he fools RPBs and other libertopians. They hear his idiotic blather and automatically think he's so fucking awesome. It only goes to show how naive and ridiculous they are in their rubber stamping of any stupid idea that remotely fits with their libertopian "values", which have no place in modern society.

Preach it brother! Damn the libertarians and their Iraq war!

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: GDaddy

Originally posted by: LegendKiller

Originally posted by: sportage
If you ever been to Minn, MN you can see Jesse's work first hand.
I believe it was "he" that fought tooth and nail to get the mass transit
"Metro Transit light rail trains" to become reality.
If you ever visit Minn,MN this is a great mass transit system they have in place!

I'm an Al Franken fan, but Jesse really did cut thru the muck
and did some nice things for those folks, when he was in power.
And as Jesse often says, "it was not easy".
He had to buck the system head on and took a lot of heat from
the powers that be. But he won for the people.

If Jesse is really tossing in his hat, this has got to be very very very bad
news for the other two guys.

Great, put in light rail, destroyed the school system, the rest of the infrastructure, ran the state into a deficit, and hurt numerous other areas.

What a great guy!

exactly, grew up and still live in MN. The only thing Jesse is good for is sound bites. How i hope he does not fool the people again.

Ohhh, he fools RPBs and other libertopians. They hear his idiotic blather and automatically think he's so fucking awesome. It only goes to show how naive and ridiculous they are in their rubber stamping of any stupid idea that remotely fits with their libertopian "values", which have no place in modern society.

Preach it brother! Damn the libertarians and their Iraq war!

Libertopianism isn't a pragmatic belief. It has way too many idealistic viewpoints to actually work in the real world.

To simply rubber stamp somebody because the spout of libertopian beliefs is ridiculous. To simply rubber stamp somebody because they're against the Iraq war is even more ridiculous, because you completely ignore all of the other stupidity they have approved of.

Let's keep this in mind, Ventura was a *BAD* governor. I really don't know one person in MN (and I am from there) that thought that his overall policies were good, except for those who are so far gone that their opinion is worthless. Every reasonable person I know thinks he was an utter failure.

He damaged the higher education system. He damaged the public school system. He damaged the infrastructure. He damaged the public works. He damaged the budget. He was *BAD*.

How can I put it any more plainly to you?

 

[GDaddy]

Jesse had a nice 5 year vacation down south. He misses the spotlight and the stage, he cant wrestle anymore, and at best in the movies he was a sidekick, thats not good enough for him. So he turned to politics to get himself on stage in front of the cameras. And that is all this is.

 

[Auryg]

I liked Ventura just for the fact that he wasn't a politician. He said what he wanted/thought, and for the most part didn't give a damn if anybody liked it or not. Our state went in to a deficit, yeah, but I don't know if anybody could have stopped that. His changes on property taxes were nice, and I personally agreed with a lot of his positions. The trouble is, his ideas cross party lines and for every idea of his that you really like, there's another of his that you probably hate. For example, for me: He doesn't like the teacher's union. Yay. He's in support of medicinal marijuana. Boo.

Anyways, if the MN legislature would have been more cooperative with him I think he could have accomplished a lot more than he did. It just seems like everyone wants to blame him for the bad economy, but he took office in 1999 (and left in the beginning of 2003). That's pretty much the worst possible timing that anyone could have, with the internet bubble bursting and 9/11 and all that.

 

[Harvey]

Ventura's an interesting guy who can be very funny, and he's a lot brighter than his rough exterior and speech would suggest, but for both intellect and humor, very few people can match Franken.

 

[Genx87]

I believe his idea of subsidizing localities property taxes was a sham and terrible. The result is the localities took the subsidies and still raised property taxes. When the state wanted to yank them they went nuts placing the blame at the state level. Now the locale govt has the state by the balls for their own self destructing spending.

And is it really fair to subsidize home owners property taxes via income taxation? That sounds regressive to me. Some slob in South minneapolis who rents is now helping to pay for my property taxes in Albertville?

About the only thing I can say he did right was lower our ridiculous vehicle registration fee's. I was going to school in fargo right before he was elected. My car was going to cost about 300 bucks to register. In ND it was 38 bucks. Where the hell do you think that car got registered?

 

[MonkeyK]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Yes Jesse's toy train that cost over 1 billion to build. And serves about 12 people, mostly vagrants looking for somewhere to sleep.

But hey they are all excited and brag because our ridership for mass transit is approaching 1984 levels at 2008 prices.

You're always ripping on MN. You might be happier in another state.

And also your numbers are bad:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha_Line

Hiawatha is operated by Metro Transit, which is also the primary operator of buses in the Twin Cities. It carried 9.4 million passengers in 2006,[1] meaning this single light rail line carries approximately 12% of the passengers on the entire Metro Transit system. In less than two years after opening, the line had already reached (and far exceeded) its 2020 ridership goals.

The Hiawatha line might not have been the one that I would choose, but is is a success in terms of the goals by which it was justified.

 

[Genx87]

Uh sarcasm meter for one regarding the 12 people.

Now imagine if we spent that money on building roads.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: Genx87
Uh sarcasm meter for one regarding the 12 people.

Now imagine if we spent that money on building roads.

Or...ummm...repairing/replacing bridges...

Novel concepts for the feeble minded. (not speaking of you Genx)

 

[MonkeyK]

Sarcasm was noted previously. My response notes that the ridership actually exceeds expectations.

As for building more roads: you cannot build enough roads. Personally, I don't care if your commute takes forever.