Jesse Ventura says he’s running for U.S. Senate. The former Governor declared his intentions to take on Sen. Norm Coleman in an interview with National Public Radio’s David Welna that aired this morning. Here’s the pertinent part of Welna’s report:

After months of refusing to speak with any news media, Jesse Ventura agreed on Sunday to meet me in a parking lot in suburban St. Paul. He still insists he won’t announce whether he’s running until next Tuesday, the deadline in Minnesota, but when I tell him his rivals think he’s simply trying to promote his latest book, Ventura seems to reveal his true intentions. He angrily says he is running, primarily because of Coleman’s votes on the Iraq War, which Ventura vehemently opposes. "That’s the reason I run, not to sell books. I run because it angers me." And here’s Ventura again sounding as if he’s already made up his mind. "And all you Minnesotans, take a good hard look at all three of us, and you decide if you were in a dark alley, which one of the three of us would you want with you?"

Whether Ventura ultimately follows through on his electoral braggadocio will be known by next Tuesday, July 15, the filing deadline for candidates. A Star Tribune poll conducted last month found that 24 percent of voters would support the former governor, trailing both Coleman (39 percent) and Democrat Al Franken (32 percent). In 1998, however, when Ventura pulled off the biggest upset in Minnesota’s political history, he was polling at just 10 percent less than two months before the election.

Update: A source close to Ventura tells MnIndy the former gov is "not happy with the NPR report," adding that he’s told those near him he hasn’t decided yet. The source also assures us that if/when Jesse does get in, he’ll announce it through the party media apparatus, not a reporter. Ventura himself, speaking through Fred Frommer of the Associated Press, has made a statement. He claims NPR reporter Welna wrenched his hypothetical words out of context: "I gave him the reasons why I would run. But I said ultimately, it will come down to whether I want to change my lifestyle and go to that lifestyle or not." Update II: Kevin Duchschere has written something to replace the AP dispatch at the Strib. That "Ventura denies he’s running" headline is a little misleading, however, since he’s denied making up his mind one way or the other.

Previously at MnIndy:

The Jesse Years: Rebate checks, petty bickering and a lot of squandered goodwill

Ventura watch: Does Bloomberg visit suggest a Senate run?

More: Via ABC’s Jake Tapper, Ventura sounded off at length about his prospective US Senate adversaries, Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken, in an unusual venue last month: The Midwest Wine Connection ‘zine (PDF link).

Among his comments:

On Coleman: "I looked up Norm Coleman’s website, and this guy has not had a job in the private sector his entire adult life. He’s been collecting government checks since the day he got out of law school and went to work for the Attorney General’s office. So when Norma Coleman tells people in the private sector he feels their pain, how?… he’s totally created. He says all the right words. He’s in front of those spin doctors, those teachers all the time. So he’s the quintessential stereotypical politician. I try to be the opposite of him."

On Franken: "He’s an opportunist, because he’s, what do you call it, a carpetbagger. He hasn’t lived here in 30 years, and he’s only coming back to Minnesota for the convenience of his own political agenda. Why didn’t he run in the state [sic] he was living in? Clearly for being a Harvard graduate, he’s not too smart on taxes. Is he? Everybody laughs, saying I came from wrestling. But at least I knew when I wrestled in 40 states, I knew I had to pay taxes in those 40 states…"

On whether he can win: "Can I resurrect [the non-traditional voting bloc that supported Ventura in '98] again? I don’t know, but I think so. I get the same feeling today that people are truly unhappy with the Democrats and Republicans and that they’re not given a third choice. When you give them a viable centrist option like me–fiscally conservative and socially liberal–they will take it."