Former U.S. Sen. Dean Barkley is ready for a revolution.

As one of the half dozen candidates vying for the Independent party seat during the Sept. 9 primary, Barkley said he is ready to give Minnesotans another option when it comes to choosing the next U.S. senator for the state.

“Eighty-five percent of Americans are sick and tired of our two-party system and our do-nothing Congress that can’t solve any of the problems facing our country,” Barkley said. “If you don’t like what you’re seeing in Washington, and you don’t think they’re going to behave differently then they have in this campaign, then I’m another option.”

Barkley put in his bid for office against candidates Norm Coleman and Al Franken an hour before the filing deadline on July 15 — after he waited to hear whether former Gov. Jesse Ventura was going to run for the position. When Ventura announced he wasn’t going to run, Barkley decided to give it a try.

“It doesn’t have to be the way it is,” he said. “The only reason Democrats and Republicans get away with the things they do is because people don’t have an alternative. Now we have a third option.”

He said candidates Norm Coleman and Al Franken are only interested in “throwing rocks at each other,” participating in behavior similar to that of 2-year-old children.

Barkley said he won’t bore people with senseless television commericials and will behave like an adult to work to fix the problems this country is facing.

“I can’t force people to vote for me, but I want to let people know they do have an option,” he said.

With the about $10 trillion debt this country has accrued, Americans are inflicting “financial child abuse” on their kids, he said. In fact, this generation may go down as one of the greediest generations if things aren’t changed soon.

America needs to either raise its income or cut its expenses; it’s that simple, he said.

He noted that he doesn’t think people think the national debt is hitting them in the pocketbook, but it is.

Regarding the Iraq War, Barkley said this country was lead into the war in Iraq with lies, just like in the Vietnam War.

“We never should have gone into that war, but now that we’re there, I think we’re responsible for it,” he said.

The United States needs to get its troops out of Iraq, and instead of sending all the troops home, this country’s leaders should send some of them to Afghanistan to finish the real war there.

“We should not be the world’s policemen,” he said.

He called the race between Coleman and Franken a “food fight.”

And even though Barkley admits he may not have all the answers, he said he is “smart enough to listen to those maybe who do.”

He encouraged people to get involved with his campaign and check out his Web site at www.senatorbarkley.com.

“I could be a Jesse Ventura and shock the world,” he said.

Born and raised in Annadale, Barkley grew up in a small business environment.

He received a business degree from the University of Minnesota, followed by a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School.

A former Democrat, he worked on the campaign for George McGovern and John Anderson. Barkley said he switched from being a Democrat because he didn’t feel the party was representing the average person.

After working on Anderson’s campaign, he checked out of politics for 12 years.

In 1992, he ran for the U.S. House of Represenatives, received 17 percent of the vote, along with endorsements by the Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Twin Cities Reader, he said.

In 1994 and 1996, he ran for the U.S. Senate, gaining major-party status both of those years.

The latter of those campaigns he recruited former wrestler Jesse Ventura to be the honorary chairman of his campaign.

Barkley said when the two were walking in a parade in his hometown during that campaign, he began to notice that everyone was cheering for Ventura instead of himself. He started to think of the possibility of Ventura running for office.

Barkley worked on Ventura’s campaign, and by shock, the former wrestler was elected.

When U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone died after a plane crash in 2002, Ventura appointed Barkley to fill the position.

Barkley said though he was only involved with the session for eight days, he was involved in several key bills, including a Homeland Security bill and a memorial project in memory of Wellstone.