On November 3, 1998, former professional wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura is elected governor of Minnesota with 37 percent of the vote. His opponents, seasoned politicians Hubert Humphrey III (son of Lyndon Johnson’s vice-president and the attorney general of Minnesota) and St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, spent a total of $4.3 million on their campaigns. Ventura, the Reform-Party candidate, spent $250,000—money he raised by selling $22 t-shirts and accepting $50 donations from his supporters.
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His only political experience had been his years as mayor of Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, but his laid-back, straight-talking, libertarian approach to politics resonated with many Minnesotans—especially young men who had never voted before. “I voted for Jesse because he was the most honest,” one young constituent told a reporter for Newsweek. “If he doesn’t know something, he says he doesn’t know.”
During his pro wrestling career, Ventura had always been the bad guy: He wore tie-dyed outfits, feather boas and garish sunglasses, and he loudly and profanely heckled his opponents. “The Body” was shamelessly dishonest—his motto was “Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.” Ventura used some of his character’s familiar flamboyance in his gubernatorial campaign. In one ad, he wore only a pair of gym shorts and sat contemplatively, emulating Rodin’s The Thinker, while opera played in the background. In another, a Jesse Ventura action figure (cobbled together from existing dolls that a staffer found in a store, it had the body of Batman and the head of World War II General Omar Bradley) trounced Evil Special Interest Man. But when he got elected, he promised to take the job seriously. “I don’t want to cheapen the office,” he said. “I’m not about to turn it into some dog-and-pony show.”
Some of his accomplishments as governor were popular: He managed to pass a light-rail plan for the Twin Cities, drafted a novel property-tax reform package and sent tax rebates, called “Jesse Checks,” to voters every year for three years. Then the state ran into economic problems. His legislative support evaporated and he seemed to spend more time whining and lashing out at his critics (most notably—and unwisely—the droll and good-natured Garrison Keillor, who, thanks to his public-radio show The Prairie Home Companion, was a beloved Minnesota folk hero). In 2002, Ventura decided that he would not run for office again.
After leaving the governor’s mansion, Ventura hosted a short-lived TV talk show, taught a class at Harvard, and stumped for John Kerry in 2004. Two years later, he moved to Mexico. Nonetheless, some people still hope that he will change his mind and return to politics.
Pffft. I like Jesse, but Nov 3 is obviously a slow day in history.
MN also elected some other ass clown comedian (Franken?) for something. WTF is wrong with people in MN??
Minnesota voters reward authenticity even if the candidate is a weirdo. Norm Coleman ran an inauthentic campaign, taking video clips of Franken waving his arms while making a joke and trying to make Franken look crazy. It was trivially easy for Franken to bust him on it. The kind of thing GW Bush did to McCain in the primary in SC in 2000 doesn’t work here. Listening to out-of-state consultants is a sure way to lose in MN. I would never vote for him, but Franken is legitimately funny in a dry way that works here. His last book title: Al Franken, Giant of the Senate. He’s 5’6″.
Al Franken is total scum, near the inner circle of hell among Democrats who vie to be the spawniest of Satan.
Minnesota is weird. It also produced Michelle Bachmann, a far-right Rep who is just as odious as far-left Franken, and it currently has some total morons running its biggest city, including the lesbian couple of mayor and police chief. How a state founded by farmers with traditional values got there is a great topic for a book or five.
In this toxic mix, Jesse Ventura was probably the cleanest and most honest pol in two generations.
There are 13 candidates running for Mpls Mayor – some queers, some lesbians. It’s like a freak show – except you don’t have to pay anything to see them.
It’s pretty simple, the city got to be known for queer / lesbo friendly – they came in droves, and now it’s packed with them. Normal people are fucked. We are the San Fransicko of the midwest.
If you drop your wallet, be careful picking it up.
Here’s the quick rundown:
1) Naive good Christians who’ve had little exposure to evil or degeneracy support “TOLERANCE.”
2) “TOLERANCE” invites degeneracy and accumulates it.
3) Accumulated degeneracy invites extremists of all kinds.
4) Extremists create intolerance and oppression.
The Twin Cities seem to be somewhere around step 3.5, along with most of the coasts. Oakland/Berkeley, Portland and Seattle are already at step 4, as is much of Germany and Sweden.
Tolerance, without wisdom and limits, destroys itself spectacularly.
His son co-hosts a good show on RT News called Watching the Hawks
Ventura came on as a no-nonsense guy. So all these young people voted for him. As it turned out he was just for himself. Also got no support from either party.
We now have Mark Dayton for gov. The guy should be in a “memory center home” – no shit.
Lol. That was good. I wish we could see more politicians collapse like that. The only reason Dayton won in 2010 (while Republicans throughout the country were winning just about everything) is that his Sarah Palin-promoted opponent (now congressman Tom Emmer) was a fatter, stupider, more abrasive version of Sean Hannity.
Isak – Ventura ran under the “Independence Party” – when he won, it gave legitimate legal status.
Emmer would have easily beat deer-in-the-headlights-Dayton, but Tom Horner of the Independence party took 11% of the vote – which would have gone to Emmer.
It’s bad enough that Minnesota government boarders on communism, but then get fucked up by the Independence party. We get the double wammy.
Ventura couldn’t have been elected as a Reform Party candidate in 1998 because the Reform Party did not exist until 1991 when Ross Perot created it to elect Bill Clinton as President, lol (actually I think Perot did us a favor by denying the criminal HW a second term).
Go home, Zara, you’re drunk and your math wouldn’t even pass in Congressional budget hearings.
His election happened for two key reasons. First, he was included in the debates (something the two worthless major parties conspire to prevent at the presidential level), and people were allowed to register to vote and vote on election day. Were someone with their head out of their ass allowed to speak the truth, discuss the issues of the day the two-party oligarchy specifically avoids discussing, and were voters allowed to simply walk up and express their political will without a several months in advance registration process, ALL of our presidential elections might be different. But then eliminating the witholding tax and having tax day be the day BEFORE election day would also have a profound impact. Not that I believe that government at any level should even exist….just saying.