[stylin_geek]

The only reason Ventura won in MN (I lived there at the time) is that the traditionally Democrat MN voters knew they’d couldn’t afford any more Democrat politicians, but couldn’t bring themselves to vote Republican.

Ventura won by a plurality, not a majority. He and the Republican candidate won something like 60% of the votes.

Which caused the head of the Democrat party in MN to comment that “We need to look at the way we are doing business.”

Now, there is a Republican governor in MN, Tim Pawlenty. He’s a pretty solid R, from what I understand.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Jesse won in a unique three way race. Democrat Skip Humphrey was so far left, he couldn't count on state employees voting for him and Norm Coleman had just switched from being a DFLer to a Republican and no one was sure if it would stick.
Jesse talked a good, anti-bureaucrat line and even gave back the treasury surplus, but like an over-sized pinball machine, something in his brain went "tilt," less than a year after he was elected.