A DFL leader on Saturday urged Sen. Norm Coleman to denounce a telephone call campaign aimed at Sen. Barack Obama and cut his ties with the prominent Minnesota Republican whose firm is conducting the effort.
The calls on behalf of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, target voters in swing states and blasts Obama for his association with "domestic terrorist" William Ayers and for putting "Hollywood above America" by attending a fundraiser during the financial crisis.
The calls are apparently conducted by FLS Connect, a company run by businessman Jeff Larson. Larson has close financial and personal ties with Coleman and rents Coleman a room in Washington.
State DFL chair Brian Melendez called on Coleman to denounce Larson and the calls, noting that Coleman had just pledged an end to negative advertising in his Senate reelection bid against DFLer Al Franken.
Although it is against a 1987 Minnesota law to use recorded campaign calls, the recordings in calls made by the McCain campaign have been preceded by a live operator, as required by Minnesota law.
Ben Golnik, McCain's regional campaign manager, said the campaign would continue placing the calls, but he wouldn't discuss the frequency or other strategic elements of the calling program. "We didn't break any laws, and everything we said was accurate," he said.
Melendez admitted that, taken literally, there are no mistruths in the calls, but he called them "sneaky, dirty and underhanded."
Reached Saturday, Larson declined to comment on the calls or the accusations made by Melendez.
In a statement released Saturday, Coleman didn't address Larson's role in the phone campaign and called on all organizations on both sides of the political spectrum to end negative attacks.
"It's time for all of these attacks to end. I pulled down my negative ads because I felt we need to keep the focus on the issues facing our nation," the statement said. "Minnesotans are sick and tired of this, and they want positive solutions for the future and for how we're going to turn this country around. Enough is enough.
"I call on Al Franken, the DNC, the RNC, the DSCC, the NRSC and any other organization engaged in negative attacks on any candidate to bring them to an immediate end," Coleman added.
Asked by a reporter for Politico.com whether that included the McCain campaign, Coleman spokesman Luke Friedrich replied: "The senator is calling on everyone."
Abby Simons • 612-673-4921
