By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said he won’t run for the U.S. Senate, less than a week after stoking speculation he would run against Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and former Saturday Night Live writer and radio host Al Franken.

In a rambling appearance on Larry King Live on Monday night ahead of the state filing deadline Tuesday, the flamboyant former professional wrestler said he would not run -- unless God tells him to.

“Maybe I’m not powerful enough because let’s remember, George Bush, our president, said he talked to God before invading Iraq . . . God’s never spoken to me once, never. And so I will tell you now I am not going to run. But if between now and 5 o’clock, if God comes and speaks to me like he did the president, and tells me I should run . . . well then maybe at 5 o’clock tomorrow, Larry, don’t call me a liar, just understand God sent me to file.”

If God comes through, Ventura would have until 5 p.m. Central Time tomorrow to submit 2,000 signatures with the Minnesota Secretary of State.

“This was an agonizing decision for me because everywhere I walked down the streets of Minnesota today I get ‘Run Jesse, run.’ And it feels the same way as it did in ’98 when I ran with little chance and won the governorship,” he said.

The decision came down to family concerns, Ventura said. He said his children were attacked by the Minnesota media when he was governor and that he feared they would be attacked again if he ran for the Senate. “Nothing is off limits today in the world of politics,” he said.

Ventura had stoked speculation he would enter the race when he intimated he would run in an interview last week. “All you Minnesotans take a good hard look at all three of us, and you decide if you were in a dark alley which one of the three of us would you want with you,” he said.

The Independence Party, with which Ventura was affiliated as governor, already endorsed farmer Stephen Williams at its June 21 state convention.

CQ Politics rates the Minnesota Senate race as No Clear Favorite, our most competitive category.

If he had entered the race, Ventura would have set up a rematch of a sort with Coleman, whom he defeated as a third-party candidate in the 1998 gubernatorial race.

Undeterred by the controversy surrounding Ventura’s possible entry, Coleman on Monday filed his petitions to run for re-election.

The race is expected to be the most expensive congressional contest this year.

Last week Coleman released his fundraising totals for the second quarter, which were due Tuesday. According to a statement from the Coleman campaign, he raised more than $2.4 million between April and June and had $7.2 million in cash as of July 1.