Could an Independent Win in the 6th? Barkley Might Challenge Bachmann

Calling the 6th District “tailor-made for an independent,” former Sen. Dean Barkley confirmed he’s considering a run for the congressional seat now held by Republican Michele Bachmann.

In an interview with Minnesota Monitor, Barkley said he has been approached by Democrats in the 6th about challenging the first-year representative.

“A number of Democrats have approached me,” said Barkley, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2002 after the death of Paul Wellstone.  “That district is tailor-made for an independent. Jesse Ventura did very well there.  A well-financed independent in a two-way race would have a good chance.”

Barkley added that he would not run as a DFLer, but might run as an Independence Party candidate if the DFL decided not to field a candidate.  “In a three-way race, I think Michele Bachmann probably wins.  I’m not interested in running just to run — I’ve done that three times — but if I thought I had a chance to go back to the ‘evil empire’ and fight the special interests, I would consider that.  So I’ll continue to meet with them, and I am thinking about it.”

Barkley, 56, said he is motivated by issues that he said are being “swept under the rug.”

“I went back and looked at my debate tapes from 1992,” said Barkley, referring to his first congressional run in the 6th.  “Issues have not changed one bit.  It’s the same, whether it’s deficits or Social Security and Medicare or health care.  It’s all the same.  I could take my stump speech from ’92 and use it again,” he said.

Whether or not he runs in 2008, Barkley says the war in Iraq will be the key issue.“Obviously we’ve got to get out of this war.  We’re just killing our own troops,” he said, adding, “We should have learned this lesson back in Vietnam.”

Barkley’s last big job was running the campaign of independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman in Texas.  He said the experience was a good one. “Texas is a lot different than Minnesota,” he said. “There were two well-financed independent candidates, but voter turnout actually dropped.”

Even so, he cited some positives from the campaign, noting that no independent had made the Texas ballot since Sam Houston in the 1850s.

Barkley said the Independence Party was running well, explaining the party was “going out and doing the things I’ve been telling them to since day one.”

“Until they get a donor base sufficient to compete, it’s going to be difficult.  But we’ve been active longer than any third party in Minnesota ever, which is close to a miracle.  If we can raise money, we can continue to be a factor.”

If he doesn’t run for Congress, he might be interested in working for a third-party presidential candidate. He cited anti-war Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as well as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as possible candidates.  And he offered that he’d like to see the man he recruited to run in 1998, Jesse Ventura, get back into politics.

Barkley was full of disdain for most of the major-party presidential candidates, saying he was “already bored” with the presidential campaign.  But he did have kind words for former Sen. Fred Thompson, who is expected to seek the GOP endorsement.

“Fred is an honest guy, who tells it like it is,” he said.  “If an independent doesn’t surface, I may give him a call.”

For now, Barkley jokes that he’s resurrecting his career, getting his law firm restarted, and looking at how best to get involved in politics.

“When you go away for a year and a half, people forget about you,” he joked.

Barkley was one of the founding members of the Independence Party.  In 1992, he challenged then-Rep. Jerry Sikorski, DFL-Minn., in the 6th District, receiving 16 percent of the vote while losing to Republican Rod Grams.  In 1994, he received 5 percent of the vote in a race for U.S. Senate that was won by Grams over then-state Rep. Ann Wynia.  In 1996 Barkley made a second run for the Senate, gaining 7 percent of the vote against Wellstone and former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz.

Barkley helped recruit Ventura to head the Reform Party ticket in 1998, and was appointed Commissioner of Minnesota Planning in 1999.  He served as a senator for just under two months, from November 2002 to January  2003, after he was appointed by Ventura to serve out the term of Wellstone.