Mark Kennedy launches attack ad

09/20/2006

He accuses Klobuchar of hypocrisy

BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Pioneer Press

Mark Kennedy, the Minnesota Republican running for U.S. Senate, released Friday afternoon his first television ad that goes directly after his Democratic opponent, Amy Klobuchar.

The spot includes the hallmarks of an attack ad — grainy photos and spooky music — and even includes a photo of Klobuchar with numbers printed below it, which resembles a prison mug shot.

The 30-second ad contends that Klobuchar, the Hennepin County attorney, has said lobbyists and special interests have too much power in Washington but was formerly a lobbyist herself and has accepted campaign cash from an “extremely liberal group.” It also essentially repeats an attack Kennedy waged in a State Fair debate — that Klobuchar cannot decry the dealings of big drug or oil companies because she has “thousands invested” in them.

The funding the Kennedy campaign objects to is from Emily’s List, a group that supports Democratic female candidates by bundling thousands of contributions from donors across the country. Emily’s List is one of the nation’s largest grass-roots campaign networks and is a fairly traditional source of funding for female candidates across the country.

The Klobuchar investments the ad mentions are her holdings in mutual funds. She previously has said she picked among her employers’ mutual fund offerings on the basis of risk and other factors and does not track which stocks make up the multitude of her funds.

When Kennedy brought up the investments in a debate earlier this month, Klobuchar said, “You are running an ad saying you want to go after the oil companies, when, in fact, you have taken more than $55,000 from oil company PACs for your campaigns over the years.”

Ben Goldfarb, Klobuchar’s campaign manager, said Kennedy’s new TV ad is a “fiercely negative slash-and-burn” attack waged to “distract” from Kennedy’s Washington record.

Kennedy, Klobuchar and Independence Party candidate Robert Fitzgerald will meet for another debate Tuesday night. It will air live at 8 p.m. on Twin Cities Public Television.