Sneak peek at Kennedy ad draws claim of poll misuse

09/27/2006

PATRICIA LOPEZ
Star Tribune
Last update: September 27, 2006 – 6:37 AM

The Mark Kennedy U.S. Senate campaign on Tuesday alleged that Democrats are polling in Minnesota based on information gained in a sneak peek at a Kennedy ad that led to the resignation of a top staffer for his DFL opponent, Amy Klobuchar.

Pat Shortridge, Kennedy’s campaign manager, said the polling suggested that Klobuchar’s campaign used material gleaned from viewing the ad, which had been brought to the staffer by a local blogger.

The issue being polled about—Klobuchar’s lobbying history—has been a common refrain from Republican and Kennedy forces for months and first appeared in on-air ads shortly before the sneak peek.

Klobuchar campaign manager Ben Goldfarb called Shortridge’s allegation “an absurd, baseless attack from a desperate campaign.” He said the Klobuchar campaign “in no way used the ad in question.”

The unfinished ad, screened for Capitol reporters by Shortridge on Tuesday, used cartoon frames to assail Klobuchar for having been a registered lobbyist before she became Hennepin County attorney.

A letter to Kennedy from former GOP Gov. Al Quie, dated Tuesday, said Quie had been called Sept. 19 by a pollster asking whether knowledge of Klobuchar’s lobbyist past made a difference in how he would cast his vote.

Goldfarb said the campaign had done polling last week on the issue, but not based on the unfinished ad.

Klobuchar’s lobbyist registration is “something they have been attacking Amy Klobuchar on for months,” Goldfarb said.