LOOMINGTON, Minn. - Governor Jesse Ventura said yesterday that Reform Party presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan declined his offer to have coffee during his two-day visit to the Twin Cities.
Buchanan did not see it that way.
Speaking on his weekly radio show, Ventura said he did not snub Buchanan, who on Thursday made his first visit to Minnesota since leaving the Republican Party on Monday.
The governor said he was on his way to football practice when Buchanan's staff called him Thursday afternoon. Ventura is a volunteer coach at Champlin Park High School.
Ventura said he offered to have coffee with Buchanan yesterday morning for 45 minutes at the governor's residence, but Buchanan declined.
''They preferred a meeting with media and hoopla,'' Ventura said. ''I preferred a private meeting.
''I didn't snub anyone. I was busy doing my job.''
Buchanan was in town Thursday for a book-signing and a fund-raiser. He left yesterday morning. Buchanan said he was boarding a flight to Fargo, N.D., when he heard a radio report that Ventura was trying to get in touch with him.
''Let's just chalk it up to inadequate staff work and leave it up to reporters to figure out which staff it was,'' Buchanan told KFGO Radio in Fargo.
Ventura has said Buchanan is welcome in the Reform Party, but has not embraced him as a candidate. He said he never spoke directly with Buchanan during the visit.
