Minnesota Independence Party Launches TV Ad, Fights for Survival

The Minnesota Independence Party needs one of their statewide candidates to capture at least 5% of the vote this year, but so far things are not looking good.  One of the weakest polling slates in MNIP history, the party is launching a television ad campaign to help support their ticket.

The Minnesota Independence Party has seen better days.  

The party’s nominee for Governor, Hannah Nicollet, has hovered in the low single digits recently. She captured 3% in one earlier survey, but only 1% in the latest poll.

First formed in the early 1990’s by supporters of Ross Perot’s presidential campaign, the party fielded Dean Barkley for U.S. Senate in 1994 and he won 5.4% of the vote. In 1996, the party rebranded as the Reform Party and again nominated Barkley for Senate along with backing Perot’s second run for the White House. In that campaign Barkley won about 7%.

Two Independence Party members have served in the Minnesota State Senate and the party has sporadically shown significant support in legislative and Congressional races over the past two decades.

The MNIP shocked the political establishment when Jesse Ventura came from nowhere to capture the governorship in 1998. Ventura served one term from 1999 to 2003, and the party returned to the Independence name after the Reform Party disintegrated.

Near the end of his term, Ventura appointed Barkley to fill the vacancy created by the death of U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone. The move was part a reward for an old friend, and part a direct protest against the media’s exclusion of the Independence Party’s candidate from a debate.

So for several weeks at the end of 2002, Minnesota had an Independence Party governor and U.S. Senator. All the more significant, because the U.S. Senate at that time held 49 Democrats and 49 Republicans with Barkley and Independent Jim Jeffords holding the balance of power.

In 2002, former Congressman Tim Penny won 16% in the race for governor. In 2006, former Minnesota Finance Commissioner Peter Hutchinson won 6.5% in the governor’s race.

Former U.S. Senator Dean Barkley made another run for Senate in 2008, winning 15% in a race that was decided by less than 350 votes. In 2010, the party nominated Tom Horner for governor.  He won nearly 12% of the vote, while two other Independence candidates each barely surpassed 5%.

Unless one of the current nominees for statewide office can muster a 5% showing, the MNIP will lose major party status.