Governor Ventura?

One e-mail message I received from a Democratic loyalist mere hours after the news was made official summed up the feelings of a lot of Democrats.

"Ohhhhh.... I am so miserable."

But while Democrats and Republicans alike try to seek any form of answer as to how their worthy candidates could be bested by a man made more famous by wrestling with the likes of Hulk Hogan than with budget figures, I have no doubt Ventura is kicked back somewhere enjoying the commotion he has caused.

"We shocked the world tonight," he said repeatedly Tuesday as the news reports showed his lead maintaining strength.

In the final analysis, the culprit the other major parties are seeking will turn out to be a longtime ally from within.

Throughout the election, as the media talked with Norm Coleman about his tax plan and Skip Humphrey about his social programs, Ventura, for the most part, remained a wrestler in the media's collective perception. The media failed to recognize him as a serious player in state politics, because politics has almost always been a two-horse race. Even when polls showed his support climbing dangerously close to the two "real" candidates, the perception he would trail off remained prevalent. The Democrats and Republicans have had a strangle hold on state politics for generations, and the concept of three party politics detracts from the simplicity of one-on-one campaigning.

Before I allow my pretension to expose me as a raving Ventura fan hell bent on rubbing the establishment's collective nose in the upset, I will say two things. First, I did not vote for Ventura. Second, I am as guilty as the rest when it comes to the manner in which I first judged him. During an interview with him shortly after the primary, I, too, asked him about his wrestling and acting. He straightened me out quickly pointing to the fact he was also the former mayor of the state's seventh largest city.

In my humble opinion, I believe the core of voters Ventura was able to draw back into the ranks of the voting from the politically disenchanted was inadvertently helped by an apparent media conspiracy that fought to keep him down. A staff writer at one daily newspaper in Minnesota told me last week his newspaper actually voted in an editorial board meeting to endorse Ventura only to have their publisher veto their selection. He said the newspaper would not be endorsing a wrestler.

Despite the assorted political talking heads in the state who called this year's governor's race one of the best in years, many people I talked to were not especially excited by the words and actions of Coleman or Humphrey. A Democrat or Republican tossing a vote to Ventura would send a message they wanted another option. With media predictions that Ventura stood no chance of winning, a vote thrown his way appeared as if it would be innocuous. Even as he climbed in the polls, every political science professor state newspapers could dredge up said he would fall off when voters decided, as they always had, that they really wanted to vote for the race's winner.

How wrong they were. While Ventura prepares to take the reins of the state, many Democrats and Republicans are waking up to the fact their protest votes propelled their true enemy into office, and in-so-doing, brought the Reform Party onto the state dance floor with the other major parties.

Politics has been increasingly becoming the sport of the rich and influential with the vast majority of the state's residents slowly backing out of the picture. If nothing else, Jesse Ventura's victory should serve to remind the state an important message. No matter how much shine major contributors can put on an inferior product, the governor is still picked by the voters.

Jesse may lack the polish that years of political service have afforded Humphrey and Coleman, and I think that is what attracted Minnesotans to him.