Taking our own to the woodshed...

As I have posted before, there will be a special election in the St. Cloud area on December 27 for the District 15 Minnesota Senate seat vacated by now-mayor of St. Cloud, Dave Kleis, and the District 15b Minnesota house seat being vacated by Joe Opatz. Democrat challenger for the senate seat, Tarryl Clark has been running largely an issue-oriented campaign, and outside of some suspected dirty tricks, Clark has largely run an above-the-fray advertising campaign. Don't get me wrong for one minute. I in no way agree with Clark's political philosophy, which is way more in line with Howard Dean than with Joe Lieberman; it's just that the Republican side of the equation is coming on pretty strong with borderline sophomoric Clark attack ads, featuring a "Dean Scream" ad (an ad which connects Clark with Dean, interlaced every five seconds or so with the now-infamous "Dean Scream"). The ad states that Clark voted for Dean for DNC party chair, and thus she is in line with Dean's politics. Additionally, the ad calls Clark "Lawyer, Lobbyist, Loser" and labels Clark a "two time" loser for the seat. Now while all that may be true, this radio advertisement leaves a "bad taste" in one's mouth after hearing it, and it doesn't necessarily translate into a bad taste for the one being attacked. In other words, the ads take on such a mean-spirited, sophomoric tone, that the net effect is being put off by the messenger, not the message.

On the District 15b Representative side, there's an attack ad going against DFL challenger Larry Haws. In it, a "church lady" type voice admonishes Haws for voting himself a pay raise, and that Minnesotans are in danger of having their taxes raised should Haws be elected. The thing about it, Larry Haws is not an unknown commodity in St. Cloud area poltics. For many years (and currently) the chair of the Stearns County Board of Commissioners, Haws is well liked in the St. Cloud area by republicans and democrats alike. Running an attack ad against Haws is like running an attack ad against Santa Claus or your grandfather. Again, the message may be true; but the method of carrying that message speaks of poor taste by the message giver. Haws had debated Republican endorsed Sue Ek this past Friday on St. Cloud radio station KNSI; and to be quite truthful with you, Haws wiped the floor with her. Ek portrayed no sense of confidence nor mastery of the issues. (King Banaian appears to agree). And with Ek's current issues with difficulty in proving residency, these latest attack ads against Haws speak of desperation, not confidence; and do nothing to instill in the voter the sense that Ek would be a viable alternative to Haws; and IMO do nothing but reflect poorly on the MN GOP in general.

I guess what I am trying to say, is that, on balance, Republicans win when they stay on track and articulate their message of governing with conservative principles. District 15b and District 15 are strongly conservative areas; and have one of the largest concentrations of Bush voters per capita in the entire state of Minnesota.

Dan Ochsner, being well versed in issues, and well-grounded in conservative principles, could run rings around Tarryl Clark, just by staying on message. There's no need, in my opinion, to go negative at this point, which is what the preponderance of radio ads appear to be; not necessarily originating from "The Ox's" or Ek's campaigns per se, but from PACs.

These GOP-sided PACs (I haven't caught the taglines on the ads yet) are not doing their candidates any favors by sinking to the lowest common denominator and running negative attack ads. Quite the opposite.

One of the aspects of the Republican party that have I long enjoyed, is that traditionally the GOP has been a party of ideas. The DFL has traditionally been the party bankrupt of ideas, and more prone to be on the attack. These "attack" ads as of late appear to be a sad anomaly to the classiness and above-board manner in which Minnesota Republican campaigns, winning Republican campaigns, have traditionally been run.

We Republicans can and should do better.

(Filed under Elections)


****UPDATE**** 7:08am

I heard the Clark radio ad again this morning; it states it is sponsored by the "Senate Victory Committee", so indeed it appears to be sponsored by the State GOP.