Jesse Ventura

In January, 1998, Ventura became the Reform Party candidate for Minnesota governor. Ventura presented himself as a sane alternative to the mainstream Republicans and Democrats, whom he said were mired in establishment politics at the expense of running the state. "Let's put Minnesotans first," he said. "There's more of us than there are Democrats and Republicans."

Commentators refused to take Ventura seriously at first, noting that no third-party candidate had won a statewide election in more than 50 years. They favored his opponents, Republican Norm Coleman, then mayor of St. Paul and Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey III, the state's attorney general and son of the former U.S. vice president and 1968 presidential candidate. Undaunted, Ventura charmed voters with his colorful style and his refusal to mince words. Asked at press conferences about issues he knew little about, he had no problem saying that he didn't know enough to provide a good answer—something many voters found extremely refreshing.

Ventura became the governor of Minnesota in 1999 by appealing to Minnesota voters disaffected with ordinary politics—people much like Ventura himself, who, according to USA Today, rarely bothered to vote in previous elections.

Among Ventura's first goals as governor were to cut taxes, reduce class size in public schools, and to enjoy himself. "What's the first thing I'm going to do after I'm inaugurated?" he said to USA Today's Debbie Howlett. "I'm going to put my feet up on the desk and light me a stogie in a nonsmoking building. And who can stop me? I'll be governor."

During his term as governor, Ventura furthered his reputation for outspokenness, for being blunt, and for refusing to compromise. On leaving the governor's office, he regretted only that the state legislature refused to pass some of his recommendations, among them reducing the legislature from the current two-house system to one. That measure, he said, would have alleviated the budget deficit.

Ventura's gubernatorial term ended at the start of 2003. He made plans to host a talk show on the cable network MSNBC. He did say that he had no plans to run for public office, and that he would remain in the public eye as a critic of the media "because no one does that, and I think someone should."

As Ventura left office, a seven-month old story about his hospitalization for a blood clot in his lung mistakenly

Jesse Ventura, center

appeared on the news wires, "causing some frantic moments for Ventura's staff and embarrassment to a few news organizations," Kavita Kumar wrote in the Star Tribune.

The Associated Press (AP) transmitted the story February 10 through its New York headquarters, referring to Ventura's condition in July. A Twin Cities television reporter saw the story and contacted the AP's Minneapolis office. Although the AP sent advisories to subscribing media outlets to disregard the story, CNN and the online Drudge Report reported the illness, though they recanted after the advisories.

"The unfortunate thing is that this will only contribute to the [former] governor's mistrust of the media and be fodder to further his cause against the media, which I guess is amusing," said John Wodele, Ventura's former spokesman and adviser on the MSNBC talk show.