Larry King Live on July 14 (Monday evening) will feature Jesse Ventura, who will say whether he will seek the Independence Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate in Minnesota this year. The show is on at 9 pm Eastern time, 6 pm Pacific time. Here is the show’s website. Scroll down to find mention of the Ventura interview.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Run, Jesse, run.
Yes, Dave Gillespie: “Run, Jesse, run.”
je$$e’s is a stealth dem/rep corporate candidate; he’s an illusionary alternative to the status quo.
After being elected governor, he quickly abandoned the Reform party platform & shortly afterwards, the party itself.
je$$e was generously rewarded by corporate america; two books, speaking fees & a short lived tv show.
And now that he’s old news, he’s decided revive his schtick.
Coleman, Franken or Ventura proves that Nader was right about choices each election cycle getting progressively. worse
Meanwhile, Coleman is also chanting, “Run, Jesse, Run!…away!”
Jesse Ventura was supportive of the Independence Party while he was Governor. When a vacant U.S. Senate seat gave him the opportunity to choose a new U.S. Senator, he chose Dean Barkley, a leader of the Independence Party from its beginnings in 1994. Barkley was the first U.S. Senator who was a member of a minor party since 1946. Although the New York Conservative Party elected James Buckley to the U.S. Senate in 1970, Buckley was always a registered Republican. Also Joseph Lieberman never registered into his “party”, the “Connecticut for Lieberman Party.”
Thank you again, Richard!
Have there been any minor party US senators since Barkley?
…and when was the last time a minor party candidate was /elected/ to US senator (rather than appointed)?
Jesse Ventura has gone on Larry King a few times in the last few months and completely blown up the Republicans and the Democrats. I mean gone on there with other big time Big Party folks and just whipped their asses. I think he would really shake things up in the senate. And it would be a victory against the two-party system for him to win. Not only that, he his candidacy might call attention to the fact that there are other choices for president this year since his candidacy would get national media attention.
However, I’m starting to worry that he won’t explicitly call attention to other presidential candidates. In his first appearance on Larry King, he mentioned both Barr and Nader. In his last two, he talked in terms of the false two-party dichotomy. For example, he said, “there’s no one for me to vote for since it’s just Obama and McCain.” I’m not sure what to make of that; it could have just been the context and the discussion at the time, but still the fact that he didn’t bring up other options was disappointing.
i hope that jesse ventura will enter the race he will bring a sense of honesty to politics he cares deeply about peoples situations he would be aremarkable candidate a sense of fresh air in washington the republicans and the democrats helped and wanted him to fail as governor can we ask why is ron carey chair of the repulican party in minnesota is running scared of the idea that jesse will run no negative ads now mr.coleman in minnesota we like fresh politics thank-you david r.
I have voted for independents and third-party candidates for Congress. But the problem is that, in both houses, the only party caucuses are the Dems and the GOP; a member who was not a member of either caucus would be “out in the cold” in terms of influence.
VT Sen. Bernie Sanders and CT Sen. Joe Lieberman were both elected as independents, but both are building Senate seniority with the Democrats as members of the Dem caucus.
When Sen. Wayne Morse of Oregon left the GOP, he was an independent for a time but finally joined the Democrats.
And Bob Smith of NH became an independent in 2000 and blasted the GOP in a Senate speech. After several months, he rejoined the GOP so he could regain his committee chairmanship. Of course, he lost the 2002 GOP primary.
Another example was Sen. Harry Byrd Jr. of Virginia (who still works every day at age 93). Byrd nearly lost the 1966 Dem primary, so in 1970, he ran and was re-elected as an independent. But Byrd never left the Senate Democratic caucus.
Virginia’s GOP helped Byrd by not running a candidate against him. He was re-elected as an independent in 1976 and retired in 1982.
Similarly, VT’s Dems help Bernie Sanders by not running a candidate against him.
Does it help Jesse if he was to know that God spoke to me and told me that I should let him know that God wants him to run? This country is hungrier than ever for a truth-teller which has become as rare as waves breaking away from the beach. One party is “tax and spend” and the other is “spend to run up an impossible deficit – then tax”.