Jesse Ventura

Table of contents

1 Education and Early Politics 2 Political Positions 3 Controversies as Governor 3.1 Prostitution 3.2 Education 3.3 Religion 3.4 Pledge of Allegiance 3.5 Exploitation of Popularity 3.6 Cuba 3.7 Wellstone Memorial 4 Post-Gubernatorial Life

Education and Early Politics

Ventura was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He (then known by his legal name of Janos) graduated from Minneapolis's Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1969. From 1969 to 1973, he served as a Navy SEAL in the United States Navy. He returned to Minnesota and attended North Hennepin Community College in the mid-1970s at the same time he began weight lifting and wrestling. He began to use the stage name Jesse "The Body" Ventura. In 1975, he married to his wife Terry (the couple now has two grown children).

Ventura continued to wrestle until the mid-1980s when health problems forced him to retire from the ring. He began to do color commentary on television for wrestling, and then did the same on radio for a few National Football League teams. Ventura acted in the 1987 movie Predator, whose cast included future California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and future Kentucky Gubernatorial Candidate Sonny Landham.

Ventura ran for mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota in 1990 and served from 1991 to 1995. Between 1995 and his run for governor, Ventura had a radio call-in show in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market.

Political Positions

Ventura's main campaign promise was a tax refund to Minnesota residents. The state was running a budget surplus at the time, and Ventura believed that the money should be given back to the public. In political debates, he often admitted that he hadn't formed an opinion on certain policy questions. Ventura frequently described himself as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal."

Later as governor, he came to support a unicameral (one-house) legislature, light-rail public transport, property tax reform, gay rights and abortion rights. While funding public school education generously, he opposed teachers unions, and did not have a high regard for the public funding of higher-education institutions. Additionally, Ventura supported the use of medicinal marijuana. Prior to the presidential election of 2000, Ventura supported the role of third parties in national politics, and voiced interest in the concept of instant runoff voting.

Lacking a party base in the Minnesota House and Senate, Governor Ventura's vetoes were often overridden.

Ventura was elected on a Reform party ticket, but it wasn't long before he and the party started to find different paths. When the Reform party was taken over by Pat Buchanan supporters before the presidential elections of 2000, Ventura left the party. However, he maintained close ties to the Independence Party of Minnesota, which also broke from the Reform party around the same time.

Controversies as Governor

Prostitution

Education

"If you are smart enough to go to college, you are smart enough to figure out a way to pay for it."

"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business."

"WHEREAS: The unique feature of this nation at its founding was its establishment of a secular Constitution that separated government from religion - something never done before; and WHEREAS: Our secular Constitution has enabled people of all worldviews to coexist in harmony, undivided by sectarian strife; and WHEREAS: President James Madison made clear the importance of maintaining this harmony when he said, "The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the endless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries"; and WHEREAS: The diversity of our people requires mutual respect and equal protection for all our citizens, including minority groups, if we are to remain "One nation, indivisible"; and WHEREAS: It is the unfettered diversity of ideas and worldviews that have made our nation the strongest and most productive in the world; and WHEREAS: Eternal vigilance must be maintained to guard against those who seek to stifle ideas, establish a narrow orthodoxy, and divide our nation along arbitrary lines of race, ethnicity, and religious belief or nonbelief. NOW, THEREFORE, I, JESSE VENTURA, Governor of Minnesota, do hereby proclaim that Thursday, July 4, 2002 shall be observed as: INDIVISIBLE DAY In the State Of Minnesota."

Pledge of Allegiance

"I believe patriotism comes from the heart. Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance that is the result of knowledge and belief. A patriot shows their patriotism through their actions, by their choice [such as voting, attending community meetings and speaking out when needed]. No law will make a citizen a patriot."

Cuba

Wellstone Memorial

Post-Gubernatorial Life

Because of what he saw as overeager journalists trying to make mountains out of molehills in the media, Ventura decided to drop out of the political spotlight and not run for a second term as governor in 2002. He was succeded in his office by Tim Pawlenty in a race that saw four major-party candidates (at the time, the Republican, DFL, Independence, and Green parties were all considered to be "major" by the state).

Ventura began a cable television show in October, 2003 on MSNBC called Jesse Ventura's America. The show is broadcast once-a-week, on Saturdays, unlike many MSNBC shows which are on five-nights-a-week (this show was originally planned for five-nights-a-week as well, but MSNBC executives changed their minds). Jesse Ventura's America is the only national television show filmed in Minnesota.