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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about Political ads

Amid increased Obama activity in Minnesota, campaign says Romney just pretending it's winnable

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 29, 2012 - 10:56 AM

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Although the Obama campaign is sending former President Clinton to Minnesota and has started running ads in the state, key Obama staffers said Monday morning Republican Mitt Romney's momentum in Minnesota is "pretend."

"The Romney campaign wants you to think it’s expanding the map but it’s not," said Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's campaign manager. "Romney is pretending he’s got a shot in state’s like in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. We expect the Romney campaign to visit an out of play state this week to pretend like they have some momentum there."

A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll over the weekend found Obama with 3 percentage point lead over Romney, predicting a far tighter race than both campaigns appear to have assumed. 

Obama campaign senior advisor David Axelrod said the Obama campaign is running ads in Minnesota because the Romney campaign began advertising in the state. 

"We are not going to surrender any territory," he said on a conference call with reporters.

Republicans see evidence that the Democrats are clearly scared Minnesota is on the verge of slipping away from them.

"No matter how you slice it, President Obama’s map is shrinking while Governor Romney’s momentum and plan for a real economic recovery is forcing the president’s campaign to spend critical campaign cash to defend states they once thought were safe,"  said Ryan Mahoney, Regional Press Secretary for the Republican National Committee in an email to reporters over the weekend.

 

 

Pick your poll, 8th District

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 29, 2012 - 7:34 AM

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Over the weekend, two more polls came out of the embattled Eighth Congressional District.

Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack's campaign shared the results of an internal poll that shows the freshman Republican up over Democrat Rick Nolan by 10 percentage points (50 percent to 40 percent. That poll, which included 400 likely voters, 33 percent of whom were DFL, 34 independent and 31 Republican.

Meanwhile, the Huffington Post released a Public Policy Polling poll that showed Nolan up by 4 percentage points over Cravaack (48 percent to 44 percent). That poll included 38 percent DFL, 29 percent Republican and 33 percent independent voters.

Last week, a poll completed for the Star Tribune found Nolan with a 7-percentage point lead.

The contested Eighth District is Minnesota most expensive House race by far. Already outside groups have spent about $8.6 million to fight it out.

Messinger gives $100K against photo ID; Naegele donates $25K for marriage amendment

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 27, 2012 - 12:58 AM

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Wealthy individuals are giving huge donations to influence the results of Minnesotans votes on two constitutional amendments, bumping up the cash campaigns that have already broken records for expense.

On Friday alone, the campaign against the photo ID constitutional amendment got $100,000 from Alida Messinger, who has given millions to various causes and Democratic campaign over the years. Most recently, Messinger is known for her funding of a coalition of groups working to elect DFL majorities to the Legislature. She is Gov. Mark Dayton's ex-wife and a heir to the Rockefeller fortune.

Also on Friday, the campaign to pass the marriage amendment, which would define marriage as only the union of one man and one woman, got a $25,000 donation from Bob Naegele, the chairman of the Minnesota Wild hockey team. Naegele has made big gifts to conservative causes and gave the pro-amendment Minnesota for Marriage $25,000 earlier this year.

Earlier this week, donors had already given the campaigns to and against the two amendment almost $1 million in just a few large contributions.

Because Election Day has grown close, campaigns must disclose big donations within 24 hours.

Bills will not say whether he believes allegations he made; charges widely discredited

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 26, 2012 - 10:32 PM

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Updated

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kurt Bills on Friday refused to say whether he believes the allegations he levied against Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in an ad are true.

Rather than answer the question from a Star Tribune reporter, he walked quickly to his car and drove away.

"Do you believe they are true?" he was repeatedly.

"I believe there's a lot to look into," Bills said. He denied a reporter's request to stop and answer a few questions as he left TPT's television studio.

On Thursday Bills ran his first ad, which claimed as Hennepin County Attorney Klobuchar covered up for Tom Petters in exchange for campaign donations. Petters was indicted in 2008 for his role in a Ponzi scheme that went back a decade. Bills' charge has been denied by Klobuchar as well as those involved in the Petters case, including by the court-appointed trustee in the case, who called the charge preposterous.

Mike Osskopp, Bills campaign manager, has said he does not know if the allegations Bills made in his ad are true.

Asked about the veracity of his charges, Bills on Friday only said that Klobuchar "took money from Tom Petters." Asked if he believes she covered up for him, which his ad alleged, he said "I believe Tom Petters was intimately involved in the Hennepin County office."

Klobuchar, like politicians of both parties including Republicans former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann,  all received campaign donations from Petters and his associates well before he in trouble with the law. She, like others, shed the money once he got in trouble.

Asked on TPT's Almanac whether he would run other ads, Bills said "we sure do hope so. I'd love to do a positive Kurt ad."

The ad has run once, during Thursday night's Vikings game. According to public records, the Bills campaign paid $15,000 to run it and canceled all his other ad time at the station.

Obama campaign buying Minnesota ads -- for Wisconsin

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 26, 2012 - 6:47 PM

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Updated

President Obama's campaign plans to spend money to run television ads in the Twin Cities market in the final weeks of the campaign, an Obama campaign official said.

But the official said the ad buy is "very small," less than one percent of the total ad spending the campaign plans in the final weeks, and it is "targeted to Wisconsin." Twin Cities stations are aired in western Wisconsin, which has long been considered a swing state in the presidential race.

"It is not about putting Minnesota in play," the official said.

The news of the Obama ad buy in Minnesota comes as the Associated Press is reporting Republican Mitt Romney's campaign is also planning to air Minnesota ads for the first time in his general election campaign.

It is not clear whether the spending is designed to woo voters in the state's battleground neighbors or because the campaign believes Minnesota is winnable.

Neither Obama nor Romney's ad buys appear to be very sizable.

By the end of the day Friday, public files indicated Romney had bought about $29,000 worth of ad time on two Twin Cities stations (KSTP and KARE) and Obama had purchased $15,000 worth of time on KMSP. Public filing of advertising information sometimes lags behind the actual purchase.

Republicans said Obama's buy indicated he believes he is embattled in Minnesota. The Obama official said their campaign, while not taking Minnesota for granted, is not moving the state to the threatened column.

Minnesota has given its ten electoral votes to the Democratic presidential campaign in every election since 1972.

 

 

 

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