Minneapolis — Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Minneapolis Friday for the opening of the OccupyMN demonstration, patterned after weeks of protest in New York’s financial district.

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The protest featured an appearance by Independence Party and former Gov. Jesse Ventura, who spoke as people started to gather. He compared the gatherings in New York, Minneapolis and around the country to recent revolutions around the world.

“I hope that this country can step forward and follow the leads that have happened in the Middle East to many of the Arab countries where people’s movements rose up and you see the results of them,” Ventura said.

He said he hopes the Occupy movement brings change to the U.S.

“It hasn’t yet, but if it continues and grows it will. Absolutely. And I hope that it does,” Ventura said.

He’s one of the most prominent former elected officials to speak to an Occupy rally. Former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley attended the gathering hailed the efforts of the protesters, as did current state Rep. Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis.

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At about 2pm, demonstrators walked away from the Hennepin county government center and headed for the Federal Reserve Bank offices on Hennepin Avenue.

IPR notes (per wikipedia):

Dean Malcolm Barkley (born August 31, 1950) is a politician who briefly served as a member of the United States Senate from Minnesota following the death of Paul Wellstone. A founder and chair of the Minnesota Reform Party (the predecessor of the Independence Party of Minnesota), he chaired Jesse Ventura’s successful 1998 gubernatorial campaign; Ventura subsequently appointed him director of the state’s Office of Strategic and Long Range Planning. Barkley ran as the Independence Party’s candidate for the Senate in 2008, coming third to Al Franken and Norm Coleman.

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(Jesse) Ventura ran for Governor of Minnesota in 1998 as the nominee for the Reform Party of Minnesota (he later joined the Independence Party of Minnesota when the Reform Party broke from its association with the Reform Party of the United States of America). His campaign consisted of a combination of aggressive grassroots events and original television spots, designed by quirky adman Bill Hillsman, using the phrase “Don’t vote for politics as usual.” He spent considerably less than his opponents (about $300,000) and was a pioneer in his using the Internet as a medium of reaching out to voters in a political campaign.

He won the election in November 1998, narrowly (and unexpectedly) defeating the major-party candidates, St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman (Republican) and Minnesota Attorney General Hubert H. “Skip” Humphrey III (Democratic-Farmer-Labor).

First, the Star-Tribune (the state’s largest newspaper) released an interesting quasi-endorsement for Tom Horner.

It’s too soon for us to recommend one candidate for governor. Campaigns matter, and we want this one to play out well into October before we make our endorsement.

But after watching a full month of general-election campaigning, we’re issuing a challenge to moderate Minnesota voters seeking a break from polarization. A genuine three-way race is on. Independence Party candidate Tom Horner ranks as a serious contender, and he deserves full consideration by Minnesotans who in more ordinary times might not look at a third-party candidate. That’s especially true of those who value a more centrist, pragmatic approach to governing than has so far been offered up by the GOP and DFL candidates.

This isn’t a typical year in Minnesota politics. And it isn’t typical of this newspaper to put an editorial on the Opinion Exchange section cover. But extraordinary times warrant a break with usual patterns.

The editorial goes on to applaud Horner’s budget plan (while criticizing his opponents’ plans) and also includes another interesting tidbit on his electability:

Since Aug. 10, Horner’s campaign has ramped up dramatically. His fundraising tally has jumped 45 percent in the past two weeks over the previous two-week period, giving him a greater ability to buy ads on TV. That’s an impressive early showing for a third-party candidate.

 In the same newspaper, an article ran describing the business community’s hesitance to embrace Republican Tom Emmer. In most Minnesota elections, business votes and money remain squarely in the GOP camp, but Tom Horner has been pulling off some of that support. The division in this typically assumed constituency could become Emmer’s Achilles Heel.

Business leaders say Horner can be persuasive in small settings — convincing enough to prompt a growing number of fundraisers on his behalf.

Among those is business leader Cal Simmons, who, like Burnet, has been a Pawlenty supporter. “There’s a lot of underlying support [for Horner] that hasn’t resulted in financial support yet because people want to back winners,” said Simmons, a partner with Christensen Group, a commercial insurance company in Minnetonka.

David Olson, president of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, sees support going in two directions, but doesn’t sense a wide gulf between the GOP and business leaders. “I think divide may be too strong a word,” Olson said. “I know we have thoughtful people supporting both Horner and Emmer.”

The chamber had endorsed Pawlenty by this point in both 2002 and 2006. The group’s political action committee may decide to endorse this week.

For now, many people, like Bennett, are holding back campaign contributions to see if Horner gains traction.

If this seems like a conspiracy on the part of the Strib to bump Horner’s campaign, the newspaper vigorously denies any such notions.

Nancy Barnes, the executive editor of the Star Tribune, was quick to deny there was any sort of teaming up of newsroom and editorial department decision-making.  In fact, she said, the news story, several weeks in the making, originally had been scheduled to run a week earlier.

 “But I held it from last Sunday’s paper [Sept. 5] because I wanted more reporting done, she said in an interview.

The reporter, Baird Helgeson, did do more reporting, and the subsequent story passed muster with Barnes. She and the Strib’s managing editor, Rene Sanchez, then scheduled the story to run today.

It wasn’t until late Friday, Barnes said, that she learned that the editorial department was planning the Horner editorial.  She learned about it then, she said, only because the editorial department wants to make sure that its columns and editorials are clearly labeled when they go up on the newspaper’s website.

Horner’s support didn’t only come through the Strib. Instead, a former Governor gave his campaign a much-needed shot of credibility with an endorsement Monday.

Former Republican Governor Arne Carlson is traveling the state with his endorsed candidate for his job, Independent Tom Horner. According to Horner’s campaign, Gov. Carlson cited Minnesota’s dire financial situation in his announcement. Carlson pointed out that “the current record $5.8 billion deficit is the product of poor fiscal management dating back to 2003, when lawmakers began to rely on one-time money to fix long-term budget holes rather than make the tough decisions necessary to address the structural shortfall. Carlson said Horner’s budget plan is a mix of realism and redesign’ and that Horner is the only candidate in the race who has the vision, plan and capabilities to restore financial integrity to the state.”

Although Carlson did endorse Barack Obama for President in 2008, the support did contribute to a narrative of moderate Republicans fleeing the more conservative Emmer.

All of this support may open up more checkbooks for Tom Horner’s campaign for Governor. However, the big barrier he must now surmount are the polls. The latest poll of the race, before all of these new developments, had Horner at 12%, well behind Democrat Mark Dayton and Emmer.

There is still lots of room for Horner to take this race by storm. As Dean Barkley, the 2008 Minnesota IP candidate for Senate, puts it, 

The Emmer-Dayton schism is so big. The polls show there is a huge pool of undecideds. [Horner] doesn’t need the big personality. What he needs is to build his name recognition and prove to the political middle that he’s viable. To do that, he needs money for advertising.

With all of this new momentum, Horner just may get his wish.

Other assorted news on the Horner campaign:

• The Star Tribune recently pointed out that Horner plans to seek public funding. While he should qualify, he has not yet submitted the paperwork.
• Horner participated in a gubernatorial forum in St. Paul today. As far as I know, no video feed has gone up of the event.
• Former IP candidate Dean Barkley recently re-affirmed his support for Horner.
• A recent Rasmussen poll of the race has Horner at between 10-11% support.

 The Minnesota Independence Party endorsed Horner at their convention, but the candidate still faces a 5-way primary, including Rob Hahn. Horner has gained a bit of attention for attracting the support of some of Minnesota’s business community, which may not be surprising given his history in Republican politics in the state.

PS: This story is a bit old, but I couldn’t resist including it. The gubernatorial candidate isn’t the only member of the Horner family who has caught the attention of the press.

For nearly two decades, Minnesota native Steve Horner has crusaded against what he considers a monumental injustice: Ladies’ night.

The complaints he filed with Human Rights Departments in several states have earned him at least $6,000 in damages for being denied ladies’ special prices at bars.

He’s also garnered public support, derision, and a lampooning on Comedy Central’s hit “The Daily Show,” where the white, balding, bespectacled Horner compared his quest to Rosa Parks’ refusal to go to the back of the bus.

Politico also highlights the candidacies of State Treasurer Tim Cahill in Massachusetts and former U.S. senator Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island. In addition, the article mentions the possible gubernatorial candidacies of businessman Peter Vigue in Maine, former U.S. senator Dean Barkley in Minnesota, and Anthony Pollina of the Progressive Party in Vermont. In 2008, Pollina finished second in the race for governor with 21.8 percent of the vote, leading the Democratic nominee by 257 votes in a race won by incumbent Republican Jim Douglas. Douglas will be retiring at the end of his current term.

Moreover, “it’s not that hard” for a celebrity to be seen as a serious candidate, said Dean Barkley, who managed some unconventional candidates’ campaigns, including that of Ventura and Kinky Friedman’s 2006 gubernatorial bid in Texas. Barkley garnered 15 percent of the vote last November in his own independent bid against Franken and Norm Coleman.

He thinks Kilmer could have a shot if he spends his time raising money and wooing the rank-and-file Democrats in the state, all while choosing two or three important issues to hammer home.

“Running as an outsider, without political baggage, is a positive,” Barkley said. “Let’s face it. You can’t do much worse today than the political elite.”

Unfortunately, the leader New Mexico’s largest film and television industry union has endorsed the Democratic Lt. Governor of New Mexico, a blow for Kilmer’s campaign before it has even left the ground.  In the grand scheme of a political campaign, though, this could be an insignificant detail.

To the Green’s credit, they scored roughly 100,000 more votes in 2008 than they did in 2002 (the last time these same seats were up for election). Also to the Green’s credit, they did outpoll the Constitution Party’s senatorial candidates, though if one removes that two-way race in Arkansas the two parties are roughly equal. Both vastly increased their shares since 2002, regardless of whether two-way races are included. The Libertarians, nationally, raked in 807,520 votes.

On top of my wish list is ending the debacle called the War in Iraq.  I hope he follows through and actually get all of our troops out of the  country by next Christmas.  I know that the forces of the status quo are working on him and trying to make him become like all of the other go along politicians in Washington.  I hope that he is truly different and does what he said he would do.

The rest.

Today, however, I chanced upon an interesting tidbit of information. There were two “third party” candidates in the race along with Franken and the incumbent, Norm Coleman. The Independent Party candidate, Dean Barkley, won over 437,000 votes. Speculation is that those votes would have been divided between Franken and Coleman, with the edge going to Franken. The Constitution Party candidate for the Minnesota Senate seat, James Niemackl, won somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 votes. Unlike the votes for Dean Barkley, however, those votes likely came straight out of Norm Coleman’s tally.

Thoughts?

If Burris agrees to be a true interim senator, then a case could be more for allowing him to sit temporarily–as Minnesotan Dean Barkley did for a few months after the death of the late Paul Wellstone and before Republican Senator Norm Coleman was sworn in.

As for who will be Minnesota’s Senator, the Minneapolis Star Tribune said,

Coleman’s attorneys said that depending on what the court decides, they would be ready to file a legal action contesting the recount results as early as Tuesday. Recount attorney Fritz Knaak said that he believed 300 to 400 ballots would go Coleman’s way in a contest, including through the addition of absentee ballots so far excluded and the elimination of so-called “double votes” in Minneapolis.

“We are prepared to go forward and take whatever legal action is necessary to … remedy this artificial lead that we believe is being shown now for the Franken campaign,” Knaak said.

Franken recount attorney Marc Elias was somewhat restrained in his comments following the counting, expressing satisfaction that the disputed absentee votes were counted and confidence that Franken will be declared the winner Monday.

Meanwhile, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, columnist Lori Sturdevant writes that if Minnesota used instant-runoff voting, the “Senate race might still be headed for a recount. But there’s a decent chance” Democrat Al Franken, not Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, would be in the lead, since one exit poll found that if Barkley was not on the ballot, “his voters would have chosen Franken over Coleman, 30 percent to 25 percent. That’s only a suggestion of a Franken advantage under IRV, however. This poll has a 4 percentage point margin of error; an earlier version, cited by this scribbler on Thursday, found Barkley voters preferring Coleman and Franken in equal numbers.

Although Democrats gained a decisive majority in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, their hopes are fading for a filibuster-proof 60 seats.

Four hotly contested Senate races hang in the balance: Alaska, Georgia, Minnesota and Oregon.

Democrats needed to add nine seats to their current caucus of 51 (49 Democrats and two independents allied with them) to gain enough of a majority to push legislation through the Senate unimpeded.

It takes 60 votes to invoke cloture, a device to end filibusters, the unlimited floor speeches by an opponent that can prevent legislation from coming up for a vote.

Having added five seats Tuesday, Democrats would need to sweep the four remaining undecided races to reach 60.

Each of these four races had a strong independent or alternative party candidate in the race: Alaskan Independent Bob Bird, Georgia Libertarian Allen Buckley, the Minnesota Independence Party’s Dean Barkley, and Oregon Constitution Party candidate Dave Brownlow.

The CNN article
also points out that even if the Democrats end up winning all four contests, Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats but supported McCain, might switch to the Republican caucus.

Minnesota will probably have a recount, and Georgia will probably have a runoff election. Alaska Senator Stevens, who has just become a convicted felon, may not be seated by the Senate even if he does win the election.

It looks like Norm Coleman is inching ahead of Franken at this moment. Had Barkley not been in the race, some speculate that Coleman would have walked away with this victory.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune says an NBC News/Mason Dixon poll this week has Barkley at 12 percent, with 10 percent undecided, while a Rasmussen poll has Barkley at 14 percent, with four percent undecided. Coleman had a slim lead over Franken in both polls despite the Democratic ticket’s lead in the state.

Barkley and Ventura were interviewed on GCN Live’s Alex Jones Show.

The story also says Barkley’s ex-wife, Susan, who said their marriage ended largely because of her then-husband’s political career, plans to vote for him. She said, “He’d be an excellent senator. He’s really smart — he gets it.”

Minnesota Daily says Barkley “will speak Wednesday afternoon in the first of a series of Senate candidate forums hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance” on the “polarization of our political parties.”

Video from The Uptake