Dean Barkley _ lawyer, political kingmaker, and bus driver _ has spent 62 days in the U.S. Senate, which he calls "the most prestigious club on earth."

Now he wants back in.

As a perennial third-party candidate with three election losses under his belt, Barkley managed Jesse Ventura's triumphant outsider bid for governor in 1998. The former wrestler repaid him with a prominent role in his administration, then appointed him in 2002 to fill out the final days of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone's term.

This week, Ventura flirted with running for Senate from Minnesota, against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and likely Democratic candidate Al Franken, famous for his books, radio show, and years on "Saturday Night Live."

When Ventura decided not to run, Barkley decided he would.

Barkley is by far the best-known of seven people running in September's primary to be the candidate of the Independence Party _ which, thanks in part to Ventura, still enjoys major-party status in Minnesota.

But he knows the general election would be tough. Larry Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota, said it would be hard for a third-party candidate to draw votes in a race with two high-profile candidates "if you're not Jesse Ventura."

"I'm not Jesse Ventura," Barkley has said in recent days.

Though the two share nearly identical political views of fiscal conservatism, social liberalism, disdain for the two-party system and opposition to the Iraq war, Barkley and Ventura temperamentally couldn't be more different. Where Ventura is brash and high-strung, Barkley is laid-back.

The 57-year-old grew up in the central Minnesota town of Annandale, an hour northwest of Minneapolis. He worked at his parents' furniture store and played high school football, then went to the University of Minnesota, where he later earned a law degree.

Barkley volunteered for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign because of his opposition to the Vietnam War, but in 1980 gravitated to the independent presidential campaign of John Anderson. When Anderson lost, "I just played rugby and drank a lot," Barkley said.

In 1992, Ross Perot's presidential campaign inspired Barkley to run for office himself. He drew 17 percent in a three-way congressional race, and went on to finish third in U.S. Senate races in 1994 and 1996.

In a summer parade in Annandale during the '96 race, Barkley first saw the statewide potential of Ventura, who had already served as mayor of a large suburb of Minneapolis.

"He agreed to walk in the parade with me," Barkley recalled. "I discovered about a third of the way through that even though it was my hometown, everyone was cheering for him. I turned to Jesse and said, 'The wrong guy's running.'" Continued...