Former wrestler and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura hints that he might run for the Senate against incumbent Republican Norm Coleman as well as Democratic nominee Al Franken.
Ventura told National Public Radio’s David Welna that the main reason he would run is Coleman's support for the war in Iraq.
"That's the reason I run," he declared.
"I run because it angers me ... All you Minnesotans take a good hard look at all three of us. And you decide: If you were in a dark alley which one of the three of us would you want with you?”
Running as the candidate of the Reform Party of Minnesota, Ventura defeated Coleman for governor in 1998 but did not seek a second term.
Earlier he had told a Minnesota wine magazine, The Midwest Wine Connection: "I'm not a politician, I'm a statesman. I do one term, and then I go back to the private sector. If I get back into the fray again this year, it's only because I've been gone five years back to the private sector.”
Ventura said of Coleman: “The guy has not had a job in the private sector his entire adult life. He's been collecting government checks since the day he got out of law school and went to work for the attorney general's office.”
Ventura called Franken an opportunist and a carpetbagger and said: "He hasn't lived here in 30 years, and he's only coming back to Minnesota for the convenience of his own political agenda. Why didn't he run in the states he was living in?”
A recent state poll found that in a hypothetical 3-way race, Coleman got 41 percent of the votes, Franken received 31 percent, and Ventura garnered 23 percent, ABC News’ Jake Tapper reported.
After Ventura’s NPR interview aired, he told The Associated Press he had been speaking hypothetically, saying he gave Welna “the reasons why I would run. But I said ultimately, it will come down to whether I want to change my lifestyle and go to that lifestyle or not."
He added that he won’t make a decision until next Tuesday, the filing deadline.
Back in March, Ventura had sought to rule out a run for the Senate, but he also said in an Associated Press interview that “you never say never” and added: “I'm not very pleased with either candidate.”
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