Nov 5, 2002 4 min read

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Gov. Jesse Ventura named key adviser Dean Barkley as interim senator Monday, leaving the U.S. Senate split 49-49 with two independents. The announcement came as Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Walter Mondale sparred in a debate in their race to succeed the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, with Mondale questioning Coleman’s independence from the White House and Coleman calling Mondale’s criticism as divisive.

Barkley, a 52-year-old former Democrat who describes his philosophy as a mix of social libertarianism and fiscal conservatism, becomes a critical swing vote in the Senate in the lame-duck session. The breakdown has been 49 Democrats and 49 Republicans, with one independent, Jim Jeffords, who usually votes with Democrats.

Barkley said he didn’t know how he would vote, promising to speak with both parties. He also said he would seek out Jeffords.

“He was a moderate Republican spurned by his own party,” Barkley said, adding. “I can get along with moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans.”

Barkley ran for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota in 1994 and 1996 under the banner of maverick presidential candidate Ross Perot’s Reform Party. He did well enough to earn the party the status of a major party in the state.

It was Barkley who encouraged Ventura to run in 1998 as the Reform Party’s candidate for governor. He was a key member of Ventura’s transition team and has been an adviser since then. Minnesota’s Reform Party morphed into the Independence Party in 2000 when Ventura left it.

In making his announcement, Ventura indicated he was angry that the Independence Party’s Senate candidate, Jim Moore, was excluded from Monday’s debate.

“Today, three very powerful institutions, the Republican Party, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Party, and the Minnesota media are conspiring to limit the hard-earned rights of ordinary citizens,” Ventura said.

Much of the first part of Monday’s debate focused on whether Coleman, a Democrat-turned-Republican former mayor of St. Paul who was picked for the race by President Bush, would be a puppet for the Bush administration.

Mondale called Coleman’s campaign “the poster child for what is wrong in politics,” citing its reliance on money from corporations and special interest groups.

“I can be independent,” Mondale said. “I owe no one when I go to Washington.”

Coleman said it would help the state to have a senator with a good relationship with Bush. But he said he disagreed with the White House on issues such as keeping Cuba cut off from trade with the United States and opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

“If I win on Tuesday, the president is going to owe me big time,” Coleman said. “We walked through fire to get here.”

After Wellstone was killed in a plane crash Oct. 25, Ventura first said he preferred to appoint a Democrat to hold the seat since Wellstone was a Democrat. After a memorial service for Wellstone turned raucously partisan, though, Ventura said angrily that he would consider appointing an independent instead.

Monday’s announcement was “typical Jesse Ventura,” state Democratic chairman Mike Erlandson said. “It is always all about Jesse. He decided to make a political rant when people wanted to focus on who is going to be their next U.S. senator.”

It was unclear how long Barkley would serve. Last week, Ventura’s office and the state attorney general were examining laws and Senate rules. Although officials initially said the person would serve until election results are certified in mid-November, some now believe the term would run into early January.

Polls show Mondale and Coleman running very close. Coleman, the Republican, trailed Wellstone slightly before the plane crash. Mondale entered the race at the pleas of Democrats, including Wellstone family members.