Pronto Pups and pols aplenty at the Fair

A reporter takes on the Fair with pen and camera – and even survives an encounter with a statue of Jesse Ventura

You’ll never be able to find anyone to argue with this fact: We Minnesotans love our State Fair.

And politicians love it more than anyone.

Think about it: You’re running for office. You want to shake as many Minnesota hands and pose for as many photos with Pronto Pup-munching Minnesotans as possible. The logical conclusion: Spend so much time at the fair that your hands become numb and your voice disappears.

This being an election year, you can believe that politicians were thick on the ground Saturday at the Great Minnesota Get-Together. U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken, the DFL-endorsed challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, held court in front of potential constituents for several hours.

“Look at that,” observed a fairgoer, whose Southern accent betrayed her as a non-native (and thus ineligible to vote for Franken anyway). “They’ve got him standing on a box, and he’s still shorter than everyone else.”

In the big DFL booth near the Snelling Avenue entrance to the fairgrounds, enterprising DFL volunteers had supplied a stack of Post-It notes and asked fairgoers to tack up “top reasons to dump Norm Coleman.” Among them: “He’s an empty suit.” “He’s Bush’s friend.” “Because he may think he can rejoin the DFL.” And: “He has a Jersey accent (in Minnesota)!”

Partway up Machinery Hill, Priscilla Lord Faris, the DFLer challenging Franken in the Sept. 9 primary, did some one-on-one campaigning.

“I’ve known her for years,” confided a volunteer in Lord Faris’ booth, watching the candidate chat with a fairgoer and his son. “She’s really a great gal.”

Just a cheese curd’s throw away from Lord Faris’ encampment was a booth with a big sign: “Nader-Gonzalez 2008.”

“Who is Na-dair?” wondered a fairgoer. Told that it was, in fact, perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader, she looked stunned, then embarrassed at her mispronunciation. “He’s running again!” she said.

And still farther up Machinery Hill, supporters of Dean Barkley, who spent two months as a U.S. senator from Minnesota in 2002 after U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone’s death in a plane crash, staffed a booth that was a tribute to pure symbiosis.

Barkley, a member of the Independence Party of Minnesota (formerly the Minnesota Reform Party), made several unsuccessful stabs at national office before gaining political credibility as the man whose guidance turned Jesse “The Body” Ventura into Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in 1998. Ventura appointed him to fill the remainder of Wellstone’s term in 2002; this year, the former governor is managing Barkley’s campaign for the U.S. Senate as an Independence Party candidate.

And Barkley’s State Fair booth this year is dominated not, as one might expect, by Barkley photos, but by a large fiberglass statue of Ventura. It was a popular attraction Saturday afternoon; fairgoers meandered by and posed for photos beside the statue. (Small dents above the statue’s left eyebrow and on the tip of the nose indicated that someone might have tried a little unsuccessful facial reconstruction.)

A media jackal even made an attempt at fence mending and posed for a photo kissing Ventura’s fiberglass cheek.

Can’t we all just get along?

More photos: Left: Volunteers at the Minnesota GOP booth. Right: a bulletin board set up in the DFL building. Fairgoers could write “reasons to dump Norm Coleman” on Post-It notes and tack them up.