by Michael Olson

After failing to convince Jesse Ventura to enter the Minnesota Senate fray, Dean Barkley told MPR "I plan on going down and filing [for the race] this afternoon."

Gov. Ventura sent Barkley to Washington in 2002 to serve the final two months of Senator Paul Wellstone's term after Wellstone was killed in a plane crash shortly before the midterm elections. Barkley will run as a candidate with the Independence Party against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and presumptive Democratic nominee Al Franken.

The Barkley bid, which could cut into Franken's anti-incumbent support, is the second batch of bad news this week for the author/comedian and talk show host. Although Franken has been endorsed by the DFL (Minnesota's Democratic Party), on Monday he received a new challenger for the state's September Primary: Priscilla Lord Faris, a personal-injury lawyer from St. Paul. Faris told the StarTribune "I've been a (Franken) supporter; I think he's a great guy, but I don't see much changed in the polls, and my passion is to see that we have a new Senator who represents all Minnesotans."

NPR's Ken Rudin says that even though Coleman is "very vulnerable" he classifies the race as leaning Republican.