How we won: Reports add up the bottom line on negative ads [View All]

[Dickie Flatt]

http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5145731.html

Minnesota's DFL Party shelled out at least $800,000 in independent spending for November's state House elections, with almost half of it going toward negative ads and mailings against Republicans. ...

In one mailing against St. Louis Park Republican Jim Rhodes, widely considered one of the more moderate Republicans in the House, a weathered and dejected looking old woman sits slumped in a rocking chair in dark shadows. The ad asks: "Could You Turn Your Back on Her?" The other side proclaims: "Republican Jim Rhodes Turned his Back on Minnesota Seniors. Say NO to Republican Jim Rhodes and His Extreme Agenda!" ...

Attacks were not aimed only at Republican candidates. One mailing from the House Republican Campaign Committee accused a number of DFL candidates of being indebted to "powerful Indian casinos" and asked "Who will stand up for us?"

Another mailing suggested that southern Minnesota DFLer Ruth Johnson "votes like she represents downtown Minneapolis -- not us" and says that Johnson was "the only rural southern Minnesota legislator who voted to treat homosexual couples like married couples."

You know, both sides put out some negative ads, but at least ours were issue-based. That mailing against Johnson not only tries to divide us geographically but also seeks to inspire hatred against gay Minnesotans. Disgusting.

The "extreme agenda" business was definitely the DFL's theme; most of the mailings I received from them attacked the GOP's "extreme agenda."

The GOP's dumb "Indian casinos" attack was obviously a loser.