The Blog

Ventura Won't Run for Senate

11:42 PM, Jul 14, 2008 • By JOHN MCCORMACK
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Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura told CNN that he will not run for Senate. Too bad. That would have been fun to watch. And it appears a bid by Ventura would have slightly improved Republican Norm Coleman's odds of holding onto the seat:

The possibility of his entrance into the race threatened to dramatically shift the dynamic. A SurveyUSA/KSTP-TV poll released hours before his announcement showed Ventura trailing Coleman, but virtually tied with Franken, feeding speculation that he would hurt the Democrat more than the Republican in the race.

The poll showed Coleman at 43 percent, Franken at 27 percent and Ventura at 26 percent. More telling, Ventura led among independents and snatched away 28 percent of Democrats.

The poll indicates Franken's chances improve demonstrably in a two-way race, even though it still has Coleman with a 13-point lead, at 52 percent to 39 percent.

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