Candidates bear down as outside ad money flows into Minnesota

One of the state's most powerful Democratic interest groups, Alliance for a Better Minnesota, is taking aim at its two top Republican targets, gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson and U.S. Senate candidate Mike McFadden, with a barrage of television ads that will air statewide from now until Election Day.

Meanwhile national Republican groups are pouring well over $1 million in ads aimed at unseating DFL incumbents in the Seventh and Eighth Congressional Districts.

Alliance will spend $800,000 to $1 million on ads lambasting McFadden's positions on Medicare and Social Security. The group also is launching a parallel six-figure attack on Johnson, highlighting his votes on job outsourcing as a legislator.

With two weeks until voters head to the polls, the major purchases indicate just how intense Minnesota's statewide races have become. McFadden's campaign called the ad buys proof that their candidate is closing the gap with Sen. Al Franken.

"The purchase of airtime by a liberal special interest group proves that Minnesotans have been turned off by Al Franken voting with President Obama 97 percent of the time." said McFadden spokesman Tom Erickson. Minnesota DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin said that "We've always expected these races to be close. We're prepared. We're not taking anything for granted. With 15 days left, a lot could happen, and we're going to prepare for anything."

Gov. Mark Dayton and Franken have consistently led in the polls, but boosting their performance could help Democrats retain control of the Minnesota House and, in Franken's case, provide a critical firewall as Republicans attempt to tip a narrowly divided U.S. Senate from Democratic control.

At the same time, national Republican groups see a chance to make serious inroads in northern and western Minnesota and are pouring resources into the increasingly close congressional contests there.

"Without President Obama's coattails to ride this election, Rick Nolan is now forced to defend his own extreme liberal policies," said spokeswoman Emily Davis. AAN's sister organization, Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC, spent $500,000 in the Seventh District, where veteran DFLer Rep. Collin Peterson faces an intense challenge from state Sen. Torrey Westrom. Roll Call reported Monday that the National Republican Congressional Committee was moving $500,000 from a race in Maine to buy TV ads against Peterson.

On Monday McFadden's daughter Molly starred in an ad for her father, saying that "he's not the best at the political stuff," but has "a good heart." McFadden spent the afternoon campaigning in Eagan with Republican Rep. John Kline, where the two said they have had to re­calibrate their election messages to account for the voter surge of interest in two topics: Ebola and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Kline, who was the target of comedian Bill Maher's "Flip a District" campaign, is facing a rematch against former DFL state Rep. Mike Obermueller.

"Not that many people know who Bill Maher is, and he has some definite detractors as well," Kline said. "It's pretty much a wash."

The true campaign challenge, Kline said, is abruptly switching focus from domestic issues to the country's security threats by Islamic militants (sometimes called ISIS) and the potential spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

McFadden, who last week called on Obama to appoint a member of his cabinet to oversee the country's response to Ebola outbreaks, criticized Obama's choice of former lawyer Ron Klain, who worked for Vice President Joe Biden.

"He's a political operative," McFadden said. "He's not a health care professional, he's a political professional. That tells me that the president believes this is a political issue, not a health care issue. I think he's wrong."