A week after the DFL-led state Legislature increased gasoline taxes and other fees over Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto, the Republican Party of Minnesota announced Monday a new round of television commercials attacking Democrats for hiking taxes "when we have nearly a billion-dollar budget deficit."
GOP chairman Ron Carey declined to say how much the party was spending on the ads, but said they would begin Tuesday and target districts where DFLers are deemed vulnerable in the fall election.
State DFL spokeswoman Kelly Schwinghammer challenged the claims, saying checks with some television stations failed to turn up scheduled buys over the next two weeks.
Carey said the DFL reneged on assurances in 2006 that they would govern as fiscal moderates.
Rep. Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, accused the Republican Party of playing "fast and loose with the facts," and noted that the crucial House transportation bill had the support of six Republicans.
Carey said the ads concentrate on DFLers because they were leading the effort to raise taxes on gasoline and license tabs and to authorize a metro sales tax.
PAT DOYLE
