Ventura helping Gore grapple with starchy image

Their relationship has blossomed into a friendship put on display to subliminally woo working-class voters.

By SARA FRITZ

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

MINNETONKA, Minn. -- They come from entirely different backgrounds -- Vice President Al Gore, the Harvard man, and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, the former professional wrestler.

Yet they claim to have become friends. And ironically, it is Al Gore, son of privilege, who has the most to gain from this relationship.

Polls show Gore cannot be elected president without the support of working-class voters who do not naturally warm to his uptight, preppy demeanor. That explains why Gore spent many hours campaigning with Ventura on Wednesday night and Thursday -- their third such get-together in recent months.

Ventura, who was elected as a third-party candidate, says he does not intend to endorse Gore or his Republican rival for the presidency, Texas Gov. George W. Bush. But Ventura's preference for Gore seems undeniable.

"We enjoy the company of each other," Ventura said Thursday.

Although Ventura insists Bush has an open invitation to visit him, as Gore has, the Texas governor has never done so.

News photographs of Gore and Ventura hanging out together are believed to be a priceless campaign asset for the Democrat's presidential bid -- certainly more valuable than any expensive television commercials that portray Gore as a friend of working men and women.

Click. On Wednesday night, there was a picture of Gore, Ventura and their wives sitting together at a horse show in which Ventura's 16-year-old daughter, Jade, was a participant. They are laughing uproariously at something Ventura has said.

Click. On Thursday morning, the two men appeared together, seated side by side, on NBC's Today Show.

Gore described his proposal to increase federal funding of special education programs from $700-million to $1.5-billion a year. And Ventura, whose daughter has been the beneficiary of special education programs in the public schools, volunteered that on this issue, "I'm behind him 100 percent."

Later Thursday, the two men spent many hours visiting with summer school students at North Junior High School in this Minneapolis suburb.

Photographers recorded their every move as they watched a group of adolescent boys fire handmade rockets into the air, spent more than an hour chatting with special education students and talked policy with parents and teachers.

The two also discussed their mutual friendship during an unusually relaxed news conference in the schoolyard. Gore said he particularly enjoyed hearing Ventura tell stories about his wrestling days and his bouts with "Mad Dog Vachon," the meanest opponent the governor ever met in the ring.

"You don't get that from most people," the vice president said.

Click, click, click.

All these photos and video clips were intended to send a subliminal message to voters that Gore shares the working-class sensibilities of the popular Ventura -- even though he is much better educated and well-connected.

For his part, Ventura, whose career in professional wrestling was preceded by years as a Navy Seal, a television commentator and a bouncer, is well aware of why Gore and other politicians have been courting him.

"I believe they see me representing the over 50 percent of people who don't vote," he told a recent interviewer. "The people who've been alienated ... the young people. The very people who are instrumental in me getting elected in Minnesota ... if those people come out and vote, they turn the election."

Ventura also says that Gore is not the same stiff personality that comes across during his television appearances.

"You know," he told another interviewer after visiting Gore's home for dinner, "the one I seen at dinner is a very intelligent man -- animated, highly emotional. Yet the one I see on TV is drier than toast."

When the two men are alone together, according to Ventura, they share "war stories" about their experiences on the campaign trail. On Wednesday night, when Gore stayed at the governor's mansion in St. Paul, he said, the two stayed up past midnight, talking and laughing.

In public, they tell an endless stream of self-deprecating jokes. Gore jokes that he is trying to teach Ventura to "loosen up a little bit and not be so formal." Ventura, who is bald, says he has been offering Gore advice on hairstyles.

Despite Ventura's advice, however, Gore is far from being as popular as his friend. Asked how he could become as popular as the governor, Gore replied: "Maybe I need an Al Gore live action figure."

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