| Lazy. Journalism.
That's the only way to describe this piece from MPR about push-polling in the Third district congressional race. Lazy because how much work would it take to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this push-polling is not a case of "well, they're both doing it." as the Paulsen campaign would have us believe. It looks like outside spending and negative campaigning may have begun in Minnesota's highly competitive 3rd District congressional race.
DFL candidate Ashwin Madia's campaign says it has received numerous reports of so-called "push polling" from voters in the district. Push polls masquerade as scientific polls, but are actually telemarketing efforts designed to disseminate negative messages about a candidate.
In a press release the campaign said the calls "distorted Madia's position on Iraq and falsely stated that Madia was impeached when he was the president of the University of Minnesota student body."
Campaign Manager Stu Rosenberg sent a letter to his counterpart at Republican Erik Paulsen's campaign calling on Paulsen to disavow the tactics.
Michael Brodkorb, who's filling in as a spokesman for the Paulsen campaign, said Paulsen is not behind the calls, and countered that he also has heard reports of anti-Paulsen push polling.
"We're both victims of these outside groups," Brodkorb said, adding supporters told the Paulsen campaign that the AFSCME union was behind the anti-Paulsen calls. Brodkorb also noted that AFSCME has endorsed Madia, and called on Madia to "distance himself" from them. Let's keep in mind that the Madia campaign has three signed affidavits indicating reception of this misleading and disingenuous call while official Paulsen campaign spokesman Michael Brodkorb has exactly nothing proving anything about the AFSCME calls.
Apples and oranges, folks. One is clear evidence of sleazy tactics and dirty politics (the Promark/Paulsen calls targeting Madia) and the other is official Paulsen campaign spokesman Michael Brodkorb's attempt to turn a bad media day into a he-said-she-said, all-politicians-are-bad-because-they-all-do-these-things non-issue.
Obviously Team Paulsen and the NRCC are worried enough about this race that they're breaking out the big smear guns early against Madia. |
