Jesse Ventura was one of the only third-party (Reform party, founded by Ross Perot) candidates to ever win a major election, but only because the votes for the two major party candidates was split so evenly that Ventura snuck in and picked up the plurality.

He actually turned out to have a brain, and I liked a number of his libertarian positions. Haven't heard how effective he was as governor. Somebody please enlighten me.

I would have traded to get Jesse as our CA governor, and would have given a future 1st-round draft choice plus our star governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who turned out not to have had as much muscle in the political arena as he and the plurality thought he would.

Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican in a state that doesn't elect many moderates of either party to office, wasn't able to prod the legislature during its regular session into agreeing on a budget for the coming fiscal year. He did the right thing by subsequently calling a special session to deal with it, but wasn't able to twist enough arms of fellow Republicans with enough strength, and it took 106 days to achieve agreement on a budget (it finally happened just yesterday), only because one Repub. finally switched and voted for it in exchange for further concessions, eking out the exact 2/3 majority required for passage, with not one single vote to spare.

I bet Jesse would have been a lot more forceful and, hopefully, downright nasty. He might not just have talked to legislators, he would have shouted and intimidated, and perhaps busted some heads and broken some of the arms he would have been twisting. He may have gotten a budget agreement long before CA was out of money and on the verge of having to issue IOUs instead of checks, as we were.

That could be the beauty of third-party candidates -- if they get elected, they might not necessarily need to build bridges with the two major parties, and might have a lesser need to immediately start running for the next election. They should actually be able to get something accomplished. That's my unproven theory, at least, and it's too bad we don't have enough experience with third-party elected officials to know whether the theory works that way or not. As I said, I don't know Jesse was able to perform or not as governor. Thus only 3 stars, based on a lack of information.

Let's gamble and bring Jesse out of retirement. Hell, I'll vote for him if he runs for governor in CA. Can't be any worse than what we've had.

It seems to me that he showed up here in New Hampshire, and I was worried that he was going to run for president. We have not had much luck in filling that office lately, but I didn't think that Jesse was what we needed.

I think both terms, actor and politician, are very generous assessments.

I'm from Michigan-and I followed him enough-to hope he comes back and lands a few drop kicks upside Al Franken's head(even better-grab a chair and hit him upside the head with one).

I had to laugh when the Peoples Republic of Minnesota, the PROM, elected Jesse Ventura over the Baby Hump, Hubert Humphrey, Jr. or the III, whatever he was. The Baby Hump was just flat stupid, and everyone knew it. Without his name, he would have had a great career in motel manangement or some other challenging occupation. Jesse did a good job in spite of the efforts of the media to paint him as a buffoon.

when he was elected i thought he would be a joke, but he turned out to be a reasonable, competent governor.

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT AS A WRESTLER: In one of the early Wrestlemanias, Alice Cooper was a guest referee, and Ventura quipped "Looks like Alice has been spending a lot of time at the gym!"

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT AS AN ACTOR: In "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (sp?): Telling the other members of his Special Forces unit (as they were heading into harm's way in Central America) that they were "a bunch of slack jawed faggots" for not accepting his offer of chewing tobacco. CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT AS A POLITICIAN: At a Question and Answer Session at a Minnesota college while campaigning for Governor: Informing a young woman that "I didn't tell you to have children before getting married," when she asked him what he planned to do to assist single mothers who are trying to complete their educations.