Horner sees gubernatorial role model in Ventura

Tom Horner says he would look to Jesse Ventura’s first two years in office as a template for governing, should his Independence Party campaign match Ventura’s 1998 storming of the governor’s mansion.

Horner, a public-relations executive with long experience in Republican politics, tells the Minnesota Independent he’s parting ways with the GOP on good terms.

“I’m not leaving the Republican Party in protest or under a cloud,” Horner says, citing his membership in the party’s “more moderate” wing since he began work for U.S. Sen. Dave Durenberger in the 1970s.

But gridlock has soured Horner on two-party politics in St. Paul. “Whichever party has the governor’s office, the other party isn’t going to let that governor succeed,” he says.

Ventura got around that by seeking good ideas and good people from across the political spectrum, Horner says, for a “pretty successful” first half of his term. Only when Ventura become disengaged partway through his term did the legislature ditch him.

That’s where Horner reckons he has something on Ventura: his 30 years of experience in public policy and party politics, along with an inclination to stay engaged with citizens.

As for his campaign, he says it will start low-key and won’t feature a pox-from-both-their-houses critique of the two other major parties, as is sometimes heard from IP candidates. Minnesotans who know him from his political commentary on Minnesota Public Radio wouldn’t buy it, he says.

“For me to come out and say all parties are bad would be ludicrous,” says Horner.

Growing field, coming battle

With the entrance of Horner and former Republican party activist Joe Repya this week, the Independence Party’s field of gubernatorial candidates grew to five, and Tim Penny figures it may keep growing. Penny, the party’s 2002 endorsee for governor, says at least two others are still in the wings.

“It may be that for the first time we have a real endorsement battle,” said Penny, who as a Democrat served six years in the state Senate and six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. ”There are more people of my stature that are beginning to conclude that the two parties have failed us.”

Those already vying to run as Independent Party candidate for governor include party chair Jack John Uldrich and lesser-known candidates Rob Hahn and Rahn Workcuff.

Horner had publicly floated the possibility of a run and party switch for weeks, while Repya had been talking behind the scenes about a possible IP run for months, said Penny.

But Penny said at least two other people (who he wouldn’t name) have talked to him about running for governor under the Independence Party banner.

Penny said he would probably endorse someone in the race before the party’s endorsing convention, which isn’t officially set yet but is likely to be May 8, according to an IP spokesperson. (The IP will hold an interactive online caucus throughout the month of February.)

Talking about Horner and Repya, Penny said, “I’m intrigued by a candidate with some roots in the Republican Party” — in part because he and Peter Hutchinson, the IP’s 2006 endorsed candidate for governor, both came from Democratic Party backgrounds. Hutchinson drew only 6 percent of the vote, less than Penny’s