Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura appointed an independent to temporarily fill the vacant seat of the late Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone yesterday, upsetting - for the moment - the partisan makeup of the U.S. Senate.
Ventura selected Dean Barkley, 52, the state's planning commissioner and an early adviser to Ventura, leaving the Senate deadlocked with 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats and two independents. Before Wellstone's death, Democrats had a one-vote edge.
The political implications of appointing Barkley, a self-described fiscal conservative with a social libertarian philosophy, are not clear. Barkley told reporters in St. Paul that he does not know how he will vote when the Senate reconvenes, possibly next week.
He said he will consult with Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont, the former Republican who became an independent last year and tipped control of the Senate to the Democrats.
The announcement adds to the political drama in Minnesota since the Oct. 25 deaths in a plane crash of Wellstone, his wife, their daughter and three campaign aides.
Ventura's appointment of Barkley came minutes into a crucial televised debate between Senate candidates Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Walter F. Mondale, nominated last week by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party to replace Wellstone on today's ballot.
CNN, which had been carrying the debate live, broke away to cover Ventura's statement.
Barkley "has a keen sense of what is in the best interest of ordinary Minnesotans," Ventura said. "He will put the people's interest before the party's interest."
The appointment is also a symbolic poke in the eye for the two major parties and the media, whom Ventura charged "are conspiring to limit the hard-earned rights of ordinary citizens to rise up and compete for elected office without having to be a Democrat or a Republican."
The volatile Ventura said he was angry that yesterday's debate, the climax of an unusual five-day campaign, excluded two minor party candidates. He called the appointment a "direct protest" of the debate organizers' exclusion of other candidates.
After Wellstone died, Ventura said he would probably appoint a Democrat to fill the vacancy. But when a televised memorial service for Wellstone last week turned into a rally for the Democrats - one in which Ventura was booed - the governor threatened to appoint "an ordinary citizen" instead.
Barkley does not qualify as ordinary. A lawyer, businessman and former Democrat, Barkley is a veteran of third-party politics in Minnesota, having run for the U.S. Senate and House. He is also one of the developers of the Minnesota Independence Party, helping it earn major party status in 1994. Barkley urged Ventura to run for governor in 1998.
While the appointment is temporary, it is not clear how long Barkley will serve. Some election analysts say he can serve until the results of the Coleman-Mondale race are certified - probably in about two weeks. Others say Barkley could serve until the new Senate convenes in January.
During the debate, Mondale attacked Coleman as someone who would not be independent of the White House and would not look out for the interests of Minnesota.
Citing the millions of dollars in campaign contributions his opponent has received from corporations and special interest groups, Mondale said Coleman's campaign is "the poster child for what is wrong in politics."
Coleman charged that Mondale represents the divisive politics of the past, the politics of congressional gridlock. "We can't go back to a partisan divide," Coleman said.
The two candidates wagged their fingers at each other in an often heated exchange, the only face-to-face meeting in the brief campaign.
Tim Jones is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.