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Minnesota Poll: Coleman loser in bad ad competition

Jennifer Simonson, Star Tribune

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman

Last update: October 3, 2008 - 10:48 PM

Negative political ads are par for the course in modern campaigns, but when it comes to the U.S. Senate race, voters are deciding that some ads are worse than others. And the loser in the bad ad competition, according to a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll, is Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

The survey, taken this week, shows that more voters think that ads targeting both Coleman and DFLer Al Franken are unfair personal attacks rather than fair criticisms of their records and positions.

However, more of those voters are wagging their fingers at Coleman and his allies than Franken. According to the poll, 56 percent of likely voters think that ads criticizing Franken are unfair. That's compared with 42 percent of likely voters who scolded the Franken camp for unfair ads aimed at Coleman.

The bottom line? The poll shows that 45 percent of likely voters say the ads don't make a difference to them, one way or the other. But 20 percent said the ads made them more likely to vote for Franken, while 12 percent said they were more likely to back Coleman.

The poll of 1,084 likely voters was taken Sept. 30-Oct. 2, and has a margin of sampling error of 3.7 percentage points, plus or minus.

See Saturday's Star Tribune for the full poll results.

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