How many votes did Independent Candidate in MN Senate race get?

[Matt Collins]

Dean Barkley was the Independence Party candidate in MN for the US Senate. Jesse Ventura supported and backed him.

How many votes did he receive in the election?

[Lovecraftian4Paul]

He got about 15%. Altogether, Barkley, combined with two other third party candidates (Niemackl of the Constitution Party and Aldritch of the Libertarian Party), earned around 16%. Not too bad a showing, and enough to make a visible presence by perhaps contributing to the crazy recount. Not that I'm suggesting Barkley or the others were horrible "spoilers." I was really just beyond caring who took the Senate seat. Coleman and Franken are just equally more of the same.

[Knightskye]

437,404, according to CBS.

But that site shows Norm Coleman with more votes than Franken.

http://election.cbsnews.com/election2008/housesenate.shtml?type=sen

[Matt Collins]

How many votes the the LP guy get?

[Gage]

Democrat - Al Franken: 1,212,431, 41.991%
Republican - Norm Coleman: 1,212,206, 41.984%
Independence - Dean Barkley: 437,505, 15.153%
Libertarian - Charles Aldrich: 13,923, 0.482%
Constitution - James Niemackl: 8,907, 0.308%

[nbruno322]

We cannot afford to be split between the Republican, Libertarian, Constitutional, and other parties, this only benefits our enemies. I believe Ron is right to stay with the Republican party, as it seems like the only realistic vehicle for Constitutional ideas getting into mainstream politics. And now is the perfect time to introduce rank and file Republicans to the ideas Ron has espoused his entire political career.

[Beanie_N]

Here in Minnesota there are a lot of people that are just fed up with the democrats and the current republicans, so if we introdiced a true libertarian, it would be as good a shot as ever to win a mjor seat. 2012 with Klobuchar(spelling?) I believe is the next senate race.

If we could win the primary (which may include Pawlenty, Coleman) we could have a very good shot. Only about 35% of the state is truely liberal and most just vote against the GOP cause they don't like the direction it's going in. A true libertarian has a good shot here.

[Nathan Hale]

Minnesota is a state ripe for the plucking by RP supporters. The independence party is actually a pretty good party when you look at the issues, the organization, and the statewide popularity, though not without its ideological missteps. All it takes is 100-200 RP activists to become party activists and you could essentially take over the party's core. Ventura's alignment with the RP movement helps RP activists looking to access the organization and popularity of the state IP. All the IP needs is a little oomph to really make a splash.

[Matt Collins]

Ventura was a fluke; 3rd parties don't go anywhere. BUT THEY CAN THROW ELECTIONS!

[dr. hfn]

We cannot afford to be split between the Republican, Libertarian, Constitutional, and other parties, this only benefits our enemies. I believe Ron is right to stay with the Republican party, as it seems like the only realistic vehicle for Constitutional ideas getting into mainstream politics. And now is the perfect time to introduce rank and file Republicans to the ideas Ron has espoused his entire political career.

the liberty movement must be united, that means the LP and CP and independent candidates and Green party candidates must unite.