Jack Uldrich will be running for the senate seat being vacated by D. Mark Dayton. Uldrich was the former Independence Party chairman.

This race is expected to be the most expensive race in state history. Uldrich won't be able to raise anywhere near the amount of money it will take to compete with the D & R's so he promised to run a guerilla style campaign.

He'll likely be running against the current 6th district rep. R. Mark Kennedy (ugh) who has the support of the current administration. On the D. side, it will probably be Amy Klobuchar or Patty Wetterling.

If Uldrich can stay in the game, he can certainly pull some moderates and swing voters to his side. He has promised that he will be discussing issues and won't let the other candidates get away with ignoring the issues.

The media largely ignored Independence party candidate Ventura when he was running for Governor because they didn't think he had a chance of winning. Since his upset victory, they haven't made that same mistake again.

In the 2002 gubernational race, Tim Penny ran as an Independent for Governor and pulled 16 per cent of the vote. Uldrich is lacking the name recognition that both Ventura and Penny did so it looks like a uphill battle as well as party organization.

Kennedy is tightly aligned with the fringe right and his support or unwillingness to distance himself from DeLay may well cost him some votes.

Despite all the obstacles a third party faces, Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the U of M believes Minesota is closer to having a mutiparty system than anywhere else in the US.