Dean Barkley on Homeland Security Independent Senate challenger

Less spending on armed forces

A: Do not support. We need to withdraw from Iraq and stop being the World's policeman.

The Patriot Act harms civil liberties

A: Support. We are giving up far too many civil liberties in the name of security.

Cast key vote in Senate to implement Homeland Security bill

Barkley was one of a handful of centrists that voted to kill a Democratic amendment that would have stalled the Homeland Security bill, then traded his support for the bill for a pledge from the Bush administration that Minnesota wouldn't have to revamp its successful welfare program.

Barkley plans to point to his brief tenure in the Senate as proof he already knows how to work there. "I've got a short track record, but look at what I got done," he said Tuesday.

Allow FBI to investigate domestic groups for terrorism

Barkley supports the following principles regarding terrorism.
• Relax current guidelines that forbid the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from investigating terrorist groups when there is a "reasonable indication" of terrorist activities.
• Require that chemical tracing agents be added to commercially-sold products that can be used to produce explosives.
• Grant broader authority to the US Immigration and Naturalization Service to deny entrance visas to terrorist suspects.