Word: minnesota
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...once the joking had subsided, the head scratching began. For Ventura's triumph in Minnesota was a stunning political upset with unforeseen causes and unpredictable consequences. He was the first candidate of Ross Perot's Reform Party to win statewide office. He defeated two respected, if not beloved, career politicians--Republican Norm Coleman, mayor of St. Paul, and Democrat Hubert ("Skip") Humphrey III, state attorney general and son of the late Vice President. Ventura's slogan, "Retaliate in '98," seemed an off-key way to appeal to voters in a prosperous and well-governed state with 2.4% unemployment. Retaliate...
Boredom seems to be the most likely answer, plus a growing grass-roots resentment of elitist politicians who govern by focus groups rather than personal convictions. Says Steven Schier, chairman of the political-science department at Minnesota's Carleton College, of Ventura: "He's charismatic, he's warm, he's colorful. Coleman and Humphrey were much more conventional politicians and provided a nice gray backdrop. Every act needs a straight man, and he had two of them." Ventura's campaign manager, Doug Friedline, says, "He's very straightforward and honest. You may not like his answers, but you're gonna...
...returned to Minnesota and spent a year at North Hennepin Community College. In 1975, the same year he met and married his wife, he went back to California to try his hand at professional wrestling. That was where Jesse Ventura was born. He'd always wanted to be named Jesse, and Ventura was the name of a California city. Presto. Showtime...
Ventura entered Minnesota politics in 1990 when he ran for mayor of Brooklyn Park, a Minneapolis suburb, and won, causing a nervous frisson in the state's political establishment. Here was a guy who had campaigned on a Harley. Still, how much harm could this outsider do? He had been elected to a part-time job; most of the work was done by a paid manager, and the mayor's vote counted for no more than those of the six other members of the town council...
...picked up on a movie set from Arnold Schwarzenegger. ("Jeh-see," he intones in a convincing Terminator imitation, "have a sto-gie.") On the hustings, Ventura regularly told audiences what pollsters could have warned him they didn't want to hear. At a rally at the University of Minnesota, he reminded students that he opposed expanding government subsidies for college tuition. "If you're smart enough to be here," he roared, "you're smart enough to get through it," meaning college. "Have we become that dependent on government?" When his opponents, once they recognized him as an actual threat, accused...