Characters provides 3rd option

Dr. Death, Jesse the Body and the Peace Mom. Oh, my.

A colorful cast of characters is lining up for third-party congressional bids this cycle, and it’s begun to make noise in some of the top races in the country.

{mosads}Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura (I) is the latest and loudest. He had to shoot down reports Wednesday that he was officially entering that state’s Senate race. Earlier in the week, assisted suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian qualified for the ballot in Michigan’s 9th district as an Independent. And by Friday, newly minted Rep. Don Cazayoux (D-La.) will find out whether his former runoff opponent will pursue a potentially damaging independent campaign.

Previously this cycle, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan announced an independent challenge to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Ventura is the biggest name, in both political stature as well as where he would start the race.

The wrestler-turned-politician sounded very much like a candidate again in a National Public Radio interview that aired Wednesday morning. Ventura said Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R) votes for the Iraq war are “the reason I run — not to sell books. I run because it angers me.”

After reports that he had entered the race surfaced, he told The Associated Press that he was speaking hypothetically.

“I gave him the reasons why I would run. But I said ultimately, it will come down to whether I want to change my lifestyle and go to that lifestyle or not,” Ventura said.

A Rasmussen poll released Wednesday echoed an earlier SurveyUSA poll in putting Ventura just shy of 25 percent and Coleman around 40 percent. Comedian Al Franken (D) is sandwiched between them in both polls.

Former Ventura campaign manager Dean Barkley compared Ventura’s potential effect on the race to his successful 1998 gubernatorial campaign, in which he overtook a Democrat and then beat Coleman.

Ventura will have to decide by Tuesday, the state’s filing deadline.

“I think Franken is the most vulnerable,” Barkley said, citing the polling. “But in 1998, Ventura did the same thing. He basically torpedoed [Democrat Skip] Humphrey, and Coleman stayed at about 34 percent the whole time.”

While few third-party candidates are as likely as Ventura would be to join Congress, many of them are running in top races in which they could potentially swing the outcome.

Kevorkian, who is 80 and was released from prison last year, is now in a top-targeted race for Rep. Joe Knollenberg’s (R-Mich.) seat. After a near-miss in 2006, Democrats recruited former state Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters and like his chances.

Republicans have joked that Knollenberg is now running against “death and taxes.”

“What I do know is Jack Kevorkian and Gary Peters have shared the same views on assisted suicide since the ’90s, so I think Peters and Kevorkian will be fighting for the same voters,” joked Knollenberg campaign manager Mike Brownfield.

Peters spokesman Clark Pettig said: “By Election Day, it’s likely any third-party candidate will get a very small percentage.”

While Kevorkian is well-known, the third-party impact would likely be even greater in Louisiana.

Since losing a primary runoff to Cazayoux in April, state Rep. Michael Jackson has said he might challenge the new incumbent as an Independent.

Jackson, an African-American, would have a particularly potent impact as an independent candidate running in a district that is one-third black. He took 43 percent against Cazayoux in the runoff, and the seat is already imperiled because of its conservative bent.

The situation is similar in Florida and Pennsylvania, where former Democratic candidates are running against the party’s new standard-bearers.

In freshman Rep. Vern Buchanan’s (R-Fla.) district, two-time Democratic nominee Jan Schneider could play a spoiler for Democrat Christine Jennings. Party leaders picked Jennings over Schneider in a 2006 primary, prompting Schneider to opt for the independent route.

Against Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.), those leaders sought a replacement for former Democratic nominee Steven Porter early in the cycle. Porter is now railing against both major parties and, despite having virtually no money, packs some name recognition for the general election.

Schneider has already qualified for the ballot. Porter told The Hill he has assembled 2,000 signatures himself and has 15 other people gathering them. He needs 2,170 by Aug. 1 to qualify, and he said he will likely turn in far more than 3,000.

Two other races in Florida feature prominent third-party candidates. One-time primary challenger Ben Graber, a former state legislator, has switched to an independent bid against Rep. Robert Wexler (D), while GOP state Sen. Burt Saunders is running with no party affiliation against Rep. Connie Mack (R).

Saunders has said Mack is not capable of being in the district as much as he should after getting married to a congresswoman from California, Rep. Mary Bono (R).

He admitted to lacking resources, calling his yet-to-be-released second-quarter report “disappointing,” but he aims to raise $250,000 and has a base to work with as a term-limited state legislator.

In the race to replace retiring Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), conservative veterinarian Rex Rammell could potentially steal a few percentage points from Idaho Lt. Gov. Jim Risch (R) and open the door to former Rep. Larry LaRocco (D), though making the race competitive appears a tall order.

The situation is similar in Georgia, where libertarian Allen Buckley took 2.1 percent in the state’s 2004 Senate race and 3.6 percent in the 2006 lieutenant governor’s race. This year, he’s running against Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R), and he thinks he can take more, in part thanks to the libertarian presidential candidacy of former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr.

Buckley said he will likely take more votes from Republicans than from Democrats, unless the to-be-determined Democratic nominee doesn’t appeal to his base: “This time I’m hoping to do immensely better,” Buckley said.

The third-party presidential candidacies of Barr and Ralph Nader (I) could help in isolated instances, but they don’t generally cause a rise in interest in third-party candidates, said Austin Cassidy, publisher of the website Independent Political Report.

“It hasn’t really worked out that way,” Cassidy said, noting there were more serious third-party candidates in 2006. “In 1996, Ross Perot tried the Reform Party approach, and no other Reform Party candidate came close to winning another seat.”