Politics

(WCCO) A former U.S. Senator's current occupation may be driving him back toward the Senate race, but Dean Barkley may argue he never left the political arena.

Right now, Barkley is a common worker in a common job. The former U.S. Senator is now a Transit Team bus driver, assisting the elderly, disabled and the blind.

"I enjoy it," he said. "You meet a lot of nice people, doing a public service. And I really enjoy driving."

Barkley's had many jobs in his colorful life, including businessman, lawyer, lobbyist, candidate and consultant. His career hit political pay dirt in 1998 when he convinced Jesse Ventura to run for governor.

"We shocked the world," Ventura said after he won.

Barkley was Gov. Ventura's director of planning and close political adviser.

However, everything changed for him on a gray October afternoon in 2002, when Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a small plane crash in northern Minnesota.

On the morning of Nov. 5, Barkley got a phone call from the governor's office he never expected.

"Not once did he give me any inclination of what he was thinking or what he was going to do," Barkley said of Ventura.

Against all expectations, Ventura chose him to fill the remainder of Wellstone's term.

"So it's a little after 9 o'clock and I find out that Jesse's going to do this to me at 10," Barkley said. "So I run upstairs, throw on a suit and get to the Capitol at 5 minutes to 10."

"Wait a second," WCCO-TV political reporter Pat Kessler said. "You're telling me that you have no idea you're going to be a Senator?"

"None," Barkley said.

"You haven't discussed this with anybody?"

"No."

"Nobody has discussed this with you?"

"No," Barkley replied. "No time to prepare any remarks, nothing,"

Ventura timed Barkley's appointment to coincide with a U.S. Senate debate because the Independence Party candidate had been left out.

Barkley made the most of his 62 days in Washington. He leveraged his Independent vote for a Wellstone neighborhood center, critical welfare funds and cast the deciding vote on the homeland security bill.

Now Barkley is thinking about another run for Senate, unless his political ally Ventura gets in the race.

In the meantime, he's already got a to-do list for D.C.

"What's wrong with politics is still wrong with politics," Barkley said. "It hasn't changed. It's gotten worse."

Until then, Barkley gets his health insurance from his bus gig. He has no Senate pension. As a former lawmaker, he does have access to the inside world of the nation's capitol, but he rarely returns.

He recently showed up with jeans, a sweatshirt and a cigar.

"A lot of Senators went by and looked at me like I was crazy," Barkley said. "'What's this guy doing back there?' And I just flashed them the peace sign and kept puffing away."

He has chosen not to use his Senate ID card to influence lawmakers in smoke-filled backrooms.

"That card is worth millions of dollars in potential income?" Kessler asked.

"Yes, if I wanted to use it that way," Barkley said. "But I haven't. I'm driving a bus. I'm happier."

By driving a bus, Barkley said he's more in touch with real-life Minnesota than ever before.

"I'm still positive about things," he said. "I still have my pontoon boat. I still have my health and I still have some more battles to wage."

Barkley said he'll make his own decision about running for the U.S. Senate early this summer.

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