Posturing
By Mitch Berg
After a month in which groups paid for largely by his family and cronies ran more smear ads than were run in the entire 2006 governor’s race, Mark Dayton suddenly wants to play it clean:
Just a day after he declared victory in the DFL gubernatorial primary, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton called for an end to all negative ads — including those from outside groups supporting him.
“I mean it,” he said.
He doesn’t mean it.
He’s posturing; trying to take the high road. None of the groups supporting him (and paid for by him) are under the faintest obligation to obey.
Most importantly, the unions – who control their own political spending and don’t take orders from Dayton, nudge nudge wink wink – can do anything they want, spend as much as they want, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it (but heaven forfend that a business might be able to do the same thing).
Dayton is, at the very least, posturing. At the most, perhaps, he might want to forestall future exposures of dirt in his record; the GOP’s “Erratic” ad is, truly, just the beginning.
The call comes weeks after the Democrat-supporting Alliance for a Better Minnesota released an ad smacking Republican Tom Emmer for past drunk driving charges and a day after the Minnesota Republican Party smacked Dayton for his past Senate history.
Minnesota has seen similar calls before — and seen absolutely nothing happen as a result.
And nothing will happen this time. After months of paying for “independent” PACs to slime Emmer, Dayton’s current narrative is “I’m Being Swiftboated!”
In October of 2008, Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman decided he would pull all his negative ads (they are no longer available on YouTube) and asked his supporters to follow suit. None of his supporters listened and they continued to rip Democrat Al Franken on the air. Franken ended up winning that Senate election by 312 votes.
Unlike Dayton, Coleman was sincere.
Michael Brodkorb, deputy chair of the Republican Party, said Dayton’s calls was hypocritical and the party would only consider pulling its ad after it had run as much as the Alliance ad had. Right now, it appears the GOP doesn’t have the funding to run it that often.
Given that unlike A4aBM’s largely fallacious spots the GOP’s commercials are true, the spending gap may not tell the whole story.
August 12th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
“the GOP’s “Erratic” ad is, truly, just the beginning.”
OK Mad Mark the glove are off now, LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!
August 12th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Really? Coelman was sincere? I don’t buy that baloney.
Coleman shows up as the man behind a very similar PAC in that most recent Factcheck.org link I posted yesterday. The same one I emailed you privately. I’m unhappy with how the money is flowing on both sides of this election.
I think your Emmer is gonig to lose to the Democratic candidate; and what will that say about how his credentials are regarded by Minnesotans?
Completely changing the subject – but not in a way I think you will mind too much my friend………..are you going to be broadcasting from the State Fair this year again Mitch?
The great Minnesota get together is only a few weeks away now…
August 12th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
It will say nothing whatever about Emmers credentials since Minnesota elections are not decided by credentials but by name recognition (for proof, see Jesse the Body and Rod Grams). Emmer’s defeat will speak volumes about Mark Dayton’s ability to buy the name recognition he needs to get elected.
Plus, if Dayton is sincere and he succeeds in getting the other groups to pull their ads, that shows that he controls them meaning they are coordinated activities within the meaning of election law and he must report their expenditures as his own. Never happen.
Whether or not Coleman was posturing – Dayton certainly is.
.
August 12th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
It’s an old game: “If my guy wins the democratic process worked! If the other guy wins, the democratic process is hopelessly flawed!”
The above doesn’t count in Bush V Gore or Coleman V Franken, by the way. Those elections were ties. Democracy had little to do with the person who was sworn in. That was decided by lawyers and judges.
August 12th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
In realated news, Mark Dayton has called for distribution of free Pixie Dust and a unicorn in every garage.
That will happen before the DFL ever abandons the strategy of attack ads.
August 12th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
No deal! The DFL’s idea of an attack ad is anything they don’t like, whether true or not, whether germane or not.
August 13th, 2010 at 1:53 am
Here’s a Strib story on dirty campaign ads for the governor’s election.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/100586129.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUycaEacyU
Notice that they trumpet Dayton’s call for a truce:
They don’t mention that these “groups supporting him” are Dayton. They are himself, his close associates and his ex-spouse.
The Strib article states “Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a Democrat-supporting coalition, has already spent weeks hammering at Emmer with nightly ads that cite his decades-old drunken-driving charges.”
There is no mention of the fact that ABM is the Dayton campaign. Nor is there any mention in the article that Dayton is an admitted alcoholic who is being treated for depression, or that he had an alcoholic “relapse” while he represented Minnesota as a US Senator less than five years ago.
About the negative ABM ads the Strib says:
Dayton told reporters that he didn’t react to the ad initially because he wasn’t yet the DFL nominee and didn’t believe it was his place, not because he didn’t think it was negative.
What a weasel. No wonder he’s depressed. If we depended on people like him to tame the frontier we’d all be peasants cowering in European hovels.
I bet Nick Coleman loves Dayton.
August 13th, 2010 at 9:30 am
I bet Nick Coleman loves Dayton
They’re prolly drinkin buddies.