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Ventura served one term.
When he entered office, he had a state surplus of 4 billion dollars and left with a deficit of about 4 billion dollars. Of course, most of this had to do with the nearly 6 billion he poured into Minnesota public schools and the way he changed the business tax system (basically, he lowered the taxes on businesses in order to lure new companies into Minn.). He was also the governor when Minnesota won a huge settlement from tobacco, which he used to set up several high interest public endowments. Interest from the roughly $900 million in endowments is used for smoking prevention, medical education and research. He also managed to appoint 70 new judges throughout the judicial system that were meant to reflect a more progressive approach. All 70 are still in office.
On a more public notice, he's the one who was responsible for Congress to get after MLB when they threatened to contract the Twins, which eventualy lead to the current collective bargaining agreement.
So...nothing revolutionary, but he did a more than adequate job. The deficit has to be expected when you have a governor who's dead set on spending money on public projects despite the economy.
But the odds are long that an independent candidate will win the White House. If he is seen as a legitimate candidate, and manages to force the Big Two to address some of the issues that they otherwise wouldn't, it'd be a victory.
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