Unconventional pol

by Andy Hiller

This week, we caught Andy Hiller's reflections on the run, as he returned from interviewing Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura.

Q: So what's this guy like? Is he the real deal?

A: He walks into this ornate room where the interview is and he's wearing a blazer, a T-shirt, and jeans. You know right away, he's not the same.

Q: The same as what?

A: As a conventional pol.

Q: Was he going to watch the TV movie about him last weekend?

A: No. He had nothing to do with it.

Q: Now that he's actually in office, has his popularity flagged any?

A: You walk out of the airport and you're surrounded by Jesse Ventura action figures. Jesse Ventura T-shirts. Shot glasses, coffee mugs. And they're all selling well. Because people are excited about him. And this is a bald guy with a beat-up face. A poor man's Kojak. But "he says what he means," "he's honest"; that's what people say about him -- and they're excited. His approval rating is 62 percent, and the legislative session that just ended gave the biggest tax cut ever.

Q: Does he walk on water?

A: I went to the "other side." I sought out opponents. You know what they say? Things like, "The legislature didn't give back all the surplus." Imagine that! In Massachusetts, they don't give back anything. And he was criticized for going on a national book tour and using state-funded security. Well, don't Weld and Cellucci have guards, or state cops, with them when they travel? The things we accept here are all they have to knock him with.

Q: But can he really accomplish anything?

A: He already has. He's shown that someone different, not a state rep, not beholden to special interests, can win and can govern. At a time when half the eligible voters don't register, and half of those registered don't vote, he got people excited. Now I believe there's a chance that it doesn't always have to be the same. That there's room for a real person. This is a guy who's smoking his cigar outside the State House and when I tell him that we've got a Senate president with a similar smoking problem, he starts telling me about his electronic smoke remover and how it works. A real person! He's a guy who's been many of the places you've been, places you would be just as happy to have removed from your memory card.

Q: How much of it is posturing for just that effect?

A: Sure, he understands packaging, marketing. That's what wrestling's all about. And he had a talk show. He understands media. And doesn't necessarily like them. He's told reporters things like, "Someday I'll give you a head start and then come after you with a shotgun." He's very physically intimidating, and thin-skinned. And he can put on his all-business front. Sometimes, like on his book tour, you catch an expression on his face that looks like a wrestler eyeing the audience and thinking, "Suckers." But he delivers. For everybody who says politics is always the same old shit: no.

WHDH-TV Channel 7 reporter Andy Hiller can be reached at ahiller@whdh.com. His reflections in a flinty eye appear weekly in the Phoenix.