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JESSE VENTURA INC. | PAGE 1, 2
In mid-January, I visited the Ventura for Governor "headquarters," which shares the ground level of a north Minneapolis duplex with a hair salon, to witness the selling of Jesse Ventura firsthand. Friedline, a round, bald man with a walrus mustache and rimless bifocals, dropped a heavy stack of merchandise orders on the table. "It's more than two months after the election," Friedline said, "and we're still filling 25 orders a day. We're selling campaign stuff all over the country: Vermont, New York, Washington, Florida," he said. Some come from as far as Egypt and Japan, with just a handful of orders actually originating in Minnesota. The Ventura Volunteer Committee had sold about $75,000 worth of merchandise after the election, Friedline explained, some of it left over from Ventura for Governor, but much of it new merchandise from Ventura for Minnesota. After the Ventura victory, the campaign couldn't keep up with orders -- or with state laws requiring that names and addresses be collected for political donations exceeding $20. Furthermore, Minnesota campaign laws limiting corporate contributions made it virtually impossible to sell the T-shirts in retail stores. But it was clear that there was money to be made. Thus, Ventura for Minnesota was born. But others have lined up to profit off Jesse too, with bootleg and parody merchandise still cropping up and Salon columnist Garrison Keillor sharpening his satirical skills -- and fattening his wallet -- in a new novel that couldn't possibly be about Jesse Ventura. (Salon's new Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper, has also just completed a Ventura biography, "Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story.") For her part, Helmberger sold more than 300 St. Patrick's Day cards featuring Ventura at $2 a pop -- with nary a peep from Ventura for Minnesota. "I'm not terribly worried anymore," she says, insisting that she is firmly within her First Amendment rights to lampoon a political figure. Helmberger has already conceived of Jesse cards for Mother's Day, Father's Day and even graduation season. "I'll just keep going until the organization can prove that they can make me stop. Besides, it's so fun because he's popular. You couldn't do this with any other governor." Indeed, Ventura remains popular. The most recent polls put Ventura's approval rating at 72 percent, the highest ever for a Minnesota governor in his first month. Additionally, 74 percent polled approved of Ventura "as a person." And popularity is what Ventura for Minnesota is banking on. The relationship between the nonprofit organization selling the merchandise and the campaign committee reselling it, seems dicey at best, with Ventura's people exploiting a technicality in campaign finance laws to establish a financial base for reelection. But at the same time, Ventura and his minions have no established political base pumping millions of dollars into a constituency, and the Minnesota Reform Party has no affiliation with the National Reform Party -- which has hardly supported Ventura before or after the election. What is clear is that Ventura for Minnesota has been given the green light to continue to sell The Body. While keeping his hand tight around the cult of Jesse, Friedline has admitted that he "has some people in mind" to run in 2000 for the Minnesota Senate seat, and he plans to be involved in seeking a Reform Party candidate for president. Ventura has insisted that he will finish his term as governor, while coyly indicating another campaign for something is possible. A state race is one thing, but could all of this lead to a legitimate presidential run? Friedline won't say, but he's firm that he sees no ethics problems in any of this. "People have thought we are dumb and don't know anything about politics, but they all underestimate us," Friedline said. "April will be a big month for us, with the action figure coming out. Then we can rock 'n' roll."
G.R. Anderson Jr. is a New York writer.
Working class
hero? Jesse Ventura will have to reconcile his millionaire
libertarian views with his blue-collar support.
Body slam Jesse Ventura turned out turned-off voters on Election Day, and
upended the nation's political elite.
Minnesota
maverick The Reform Party's Jesse Ventura -- ex-Navy SEAL and former
professional wrestler -- is riding a wave of populist anger to become a
contender in the governor's race.
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