The DFL-supporting Alliance for a Better Minnesota took its mockery of a Republican candidate a step too far, it admitted on Thursday.

In a Halloween-themed blog post, it suggested that Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson should dress as Patrick Bateman, a serial killer in American Psycho, because he is "seemingly nice but actually pretty evil inside."

Carrie Lucking, the group's executive director, said within 10 minutes being alerted to the post they took the image down, removed the reference to Bateman and changed what it said about Johnson.

Instead of calling Johnson evil, the site says that he is "seemingly nice in public, but actually the policies he supports are pretty evil. It also appended an apology to its post.

"The original image and text for Jeff Johnson was removed and the costume changed because it was an inappropriate reference to a fictional character. We apologize for this error. It will not happen again," the web site said.

Lucking said she did not approve the post before it went up and had it removed once she saw it.

The screenshot of the original post comes from John Rouleau, executive director of Minnesota Majority. Rouleau said he did not alter the content of the screen grab in anyway.

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