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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

Bills to air TV ad attacking Klobuchar

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 25, 2012 - 4:34 PM

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Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kurt Bills is going on the air with an ad that accuses Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of mishandling a case involving a former contributor.

Bills' first television advertisement says that Klobuchar 'refused' to prosecute convicted Ponzi schemer Tom Petters in her time as Hennepin County Attorney and suggests it was in exchange for campaign cash.

Klobuchar has dismissed the charges as completely inaccurate. Her campaign spokesman and an official from the Hennepin County Attorney's office say she was never presented with any prosecutorial evidence against Petters while she held that office.

"Bills's ad is absolutely untrue and the people of Minnesota deserve better than last-minute and desperate attacks based on inaccurate allegations from a convicted felon. He is flat-out wrong on the facts," her spokesman Linden Zakula said.

Petters and his associates, before they got into trouble with the law, gave significant donations to Democrats and Republicans alike. When Petters legal troubles erupted, Klobuchar shed the donations, along with then-Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and then-U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

Bills campaign spokesman David Strom said Wednesday that their "media buyer is supposed to be getting a spot for the Vikings game tomorrow." He would not say whether the campaign would use the other television spots they had put on order. Asked questions about the ad, Strom declined to answer, saying in an email: "Happy to talk about the issues. The fiscal cliff. Klobuchar's record. Plans to reduce the deficit. Those are the things we want to talk about."

On Thursday, Bills campaign manager Mike Osskopp refused to provide a transcript or back-up material for the ad, as is standard practice, or say whether it would air more than once. Osskopp also did not answer whether the ad was in keeping with Bills stated desire to talk about fiscal issues. He said only, "Ill be glad to answer all of these questions when I read where you asked Amy the question we thought she should answer in our release of yesterday."

Update: In a fundraising plea late Thursday, Bills confirmed to potential supporters that the ad would run during the Vikings game.

The average of all polls of the Senate race show Klobuchar with a nearly 26 percentage point lead over Bills.

 

 

No ads, but presidential campaigns have spent more than $15 million in Minnesota

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 24, 2012 - 5:34 PM

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Being a non-swing state, Minnesota has seen no presidential ad spending from the two candidates. But Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have tossed some cash the state’s way nonetheless.

Obama’s campaign has spent nearly $1 million in total in the state. Although Romney has no one on payroll in Minnesota, the state has actually raked in more from the Republican. According to federal records, Romney has paid various Minnesota-based businesses $14.6 million.

The reason? St. Paul-based FLS Connect, a data management and telemarketing firm which works all over the nation, has raked in $14.5 million from the Republican nominee. Jeff Larson, a longtime ally of former Sen. Norm Coleman, used to be at FLS Connect’s helm. Larson now is the chief-of-staff at the Republican National Committee.

According to the records, Romney has paid three Minnesotans each $1,000 of field work in June and has spent no payroll here. The Obama campaign, which has had a Minnesota operation for months, has spent nearly $290,000 on payroll here and lists a dozen Minnesota staffers.

Outside money buying mud-slinging in the 8th District

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 23, 2012 - 7:08 PM

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As of Tuesday afternoon, outside groups had spent nearly $6.2 million to influence the outcome of the race between freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack and Democrat Rick Nolan in Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional district.

Of that, $5.5 million, or nearly 90 percent of it, has been spent to oppose one of the two candidates, largely on attack ads, according to federal records.

Cravaack has been the hardest hit. Groups, from the DCCC to AFSCME, have spent $3.2 million to oppose him while $2.4 million has gone to oppose Nolan.

But Nolan’s friends haven’t done much to build him up – his supporters, have spent only $360,000 to promote him. Much of that money was spent by the DFL.

Cravaack’s supporters have been similarly chintzy in spending cash to boost him. Only about $117,000 has been spent to sing his praises, according to campaign records.

 

Duluth station pulls ad that claimed U.S. Rep. Cravaack not a Minnesotan

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 24, 2012 - 8:39 AM

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A Duluth television station decided Tuesday that yes, U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack does live in Minnesota.

For month, Cravaack, whose family moved to New Hampshire last year while he lives in a North Branch home, has been hammered by Democrats for not living in Minnesota.

But when the DFL put the claim in an ad the Cravaack team got the ad yanked from the air.

The ad, which went live on Duluth stations Monday, included steelworker Ray Pierce saying "Chip Cravaack, he's a pretender" and steelworker Joe Drazenovich following up with "He doesn't know how we live. He doesn't know where we're coming from. He doesn't even live in Minnesota anymore."

Cravaack campaign advisor Ben Golnik said the claim the congressman doesn't live in Minnesota is "an outright falsehood." The campaign contacted Duluth stations to get it pulled from the air.

Update: Golnik said Wednesday that another Duluth station, Northland News Center, also pulled the ad.

Deb Messer, director of sales at Duluth's WDIO, said station officials and their legal counsel reviewed the claim and agreed to the Cravaack campaign's request. 

 "We have pulled that ad that they're objecting to," Messer said. The DFL quickly replaced it with another ad, she said.

Democratic Rick Nolan, Cravaack's opponent, Monday started airing an ad with a similar claim about Cravaack's place of residence in the Twin Cities.

In it, Nolan accuses Cravaack of a smear campaign and goes on to say, “That’s just not the Minnesota way. But maybe he doesn't know that, because he’s not from here, and he doesn’t live here anymore.”

The Cravaack campaign has not yet moved to get that spot pulled, Golnik said. 

Republican Senate candidate Kurt Bills is planning to air ads

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: October 22, 2012 - 7:32 PM

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 Republican Senate candidate Kurt Bills is going on the air.

Bills, who has amassed vastly less in his campaign coffers than Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, has placed orders for television advertisements with the first ads going up this week.

According to publicly available information, he plans to air about $120,000 worth of ads through Election Day. Klobuchar has been running ads since early this month but has not invested huge campaign resources into television ads.

Recent polls have found Bills little known and with little support in the state. The average of all polls of the Senate race give Klobuchar a 27 percentage point lead.

Bills most recent fundraising report showed him with about $68,000 cash on hand. Klobuchar reported having almost $5 million. 

 

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