Posted on 12/28/2002 4:25:58 AM PST by rhema
In the weeks and months after 9/11, the mood toward public officials shifts in Minnesota and across the country. The antics and attitude of Jesse Ventura that used to endear begin to offend.
State Sen. Dean Johnson was enjoying a late-afternoon break in his office between hearings one evening in March when a breathless gubernatorial aide poked his head in the door.
"Joe Bagnoli came charging down the hall. He said, 'Dean, get out of here. The governor's coming your way and he's upset,' " Johnson recalled.
"I said, 'Great, invite him in,' " the Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislator from Willmar said.
Johnson didn't know it at the time, but the final act of Jesse Ventura's governorship was about to begin. Before it was over, the story line would involve an 83-year-old benefactor, a venerable Summit Avenue mansion and Ventura's own son. Voters, potential candidates and a legion of political activists eagerly waited for this curtain to rise and the governor's political destiny to become clear.
The drama would play out in a year when Minnesotans, along with the rest of the nation, reeled from the events of Sept. 11. It would end in the raw, grief-stricken days after the death of U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone. With few exceptions, the story in the first three years of his term had been Ventura, not his policy. That would prove even truer in this final year — a chronicle of personal, often visceral responses to trying times.
Political fates, world events, family concerns and Minnesota tradition all converged in Johnson's office doorway that evening as Ventura, clad in a snowmobile jacket and brandishing an unlit cigar stub for extra emphasis, arrived to confront his legislative tormentors.
Smarting from budget strictures imposed by lawmakers, Ventura had just come from a meeting about how to trim his own costs. His decision: mothball the Governor's Residence. He and his wife didn't use it much — preferring their Maple Grove ranch. His son, Tyrel, was the only permanent resident.
" 'I'm here to tell you and to announce the governor's mansion will be closed the 30th of April,'"Johnson recalls Ventura saying. " 'The reason is your $175,000 cut from executive protection,' " meaning the governor's ever-present two-man security detail, now cooling their heels in Johnson's outer office. " 'I'm not going to be staying over there, using it, if the place isn't protected for the first family.' "
Just three years earlier, legislators wary of this outspoken, wildly popular governor had worried openly about how challenging him might rebound at election time. Now the wariness was gone, replaced by legislators gleefully eager to weaken the third-party governor before a major election just on the horizon.
The security cut was a tiny part of a budget deficit solution imposed on Ventura over his veto — an unprecedented assault on executive power by the Legislature. Ventura complained to Johnson that the Legislature had been unduly harsh on his budget, and didn't respect the fact that other governors had far more protection.
"Then the real coup de flop came," Johnson recalled.
Ventura, who once refused to show his official schedule to reporters for fear it would end up in terrorists' hands, complained that Johnson had publicly mocked his claim that Minnesota was at risk. Johnson said Ventura walked over to his office window. "He said, 'I see you said I thought bin Laden was hiding behind that stop sign here? Do you know, we have real security issues in this state?' "
At that point, Johnson said, Ventura, a gun enthusiast who once received a concealed weapons permit, stood up, opened his jacket, and said, "By the way, I'm not packing today."
But after three years of being accused by Ventura of accepting bribes in the form of campaign contributions, of being "lemmings" who do the bidding of party bosses, of being unpatriotic at a time of national peril and of being "gutless cowards" who can't take tough votes, the Legislature was in no mood to mollify the governor.
They fought back with a vengeance in 2002, sensing the once formidable governor was vulnerable for a takedown. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
It does reveal Jesse for what I always believed him to be, a flash in the pan.
It was a pure Jesse moment. A great tough line totally divorced from his actual policy.
Ventura championed a state takeover of a good chunk of local school dollars. It was a move favored by the teachers unions because it took away a lot of the control of school spending at the local level.
This was in an environment where a lot of local school spending referendums were being vetoed - something VERY rare in Minnesota. The people were seeing school spending skyrocket, and school performance decline. Many municipalities became fed up and stopped approving the funding increases. They were demanding accountability.
Thanks to Ventura, the schools got their increased funding from the state. Local referendums are now a much smaller source of funding. Accountability is a sham. And Ventura shoulders a great deal of the blame.
You were more correct than the hordes of supposedly expert political media who kept trying to pretend Ventura's election said something about a growing third party movement. That was nonsense. Ventura was a cult of personality. His base were people who thought it was "cool" to vote for a former pro-wrestler. Not much to build a third party on.
Eric, you don't want to get me started (again). Tell me exactly how Jesse "worked at it." He got tons of free media coverage as a celebrity. He hired the same ad guy Wellstone used in his first campaign (who, politics aside, is excellent). Then Humphrey tried to siphon votes from Coleman by insisting upon including Ventura in the debates. Does any other great "work" Ventura did to get elected come to mind?
Incidentally, on a note of trivia, did you realize that the famous "thinker" ad actually used a body double to play the role of Jesse's body? The only part that was Jesse himself was the closeup of his face at the end when he made his famous wink. He claimed it was because he didn't have the time to film the ad, due to campaigning. Rather implausible. I suspect the real reason was that Jesse wasn't in quite the shape he used to be. Through clever ads like that one he was able to keep his Herculean physical image in people's minds. Little things like that definitely matter in a close election (though that doesn't imply very nice things about the voting public).
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