Tag Archive for 'Erik Paulsen'

3rd CD Moves Up on “The Line” Again

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 26, 2008 at 1:36 pm
, filed in CD3
. 6 Comments

DFLers have long known that the 3rd district Congressional battle is one of the best chances for a pick-up in the House this year that Democrats have, but it looks as though the national media has caught on as well.  Chris Cillizza has seen fit to once again move the race up in his weekly ranking of competitive house races:

17. Minnesota’s 3rd district (R): This suburban Twin Cities district is playing host to a great congressional race to replace retiring Rep. Jim Ramstad (R). The contest looks like a toss up but the DCCC is now up with a commercial casting state Sen. Erik Paulsen (R) as a career politician and Patriot Majority Midwest is also hammering Paulsen on TV. It could make the difference. (Previous ranking: 18)

Madia and his campaign have been running circles around Paulsen in the 3rd and the DCCC has noticed.  The DCCC is now hitting Paulsen hard but there’s little doubt that the Republicans will do (and have been doing) anything and everything they can to hold the line in the western suburbs.  So I certainly hope that the national operators continue to throw more resources and attention at this compelling pick-up opportunity.  Fortunately, I have no doubt that Madia will continue to out-class, out-smart, and out-hustle the Bachmann wanna-be that is Erik Paulsen.

Madia Gets Push Polled in the 3rd, HELP PUSH BACK!

by
Sean Broom
Published on September 25, 2008 at 12:57 pm
, filed in CD3
. 11 Comments

This email just came out from Stu Rosenberg at the Madia campaign:

Did They Think We Wouldn’t Notice?

Dear Sean,
When I opened my email this morning, I had a message from Bill Newman of Brooklyn Center:

“I just got push-polled by some Karl Rove wanna-be. It ticked me off enough to contribute $500. Good luck and God Speed. I am so sick of this kind of Nixon Now Campaigning by the Republican Machine.”

Bill Newman noticed. Then he wrote a check.

Join Bill in fighting the Republican Attack Machine. Give generously today.

Like all Republican smear tactics, push polls are used to scare voters. What the Republicans don’t realize is that we won’t be fooled. Voters are demanding more from this election, and they’re demanding better from candidates. They want solutions to the issues our nation now faces; they don’t want more of the same failed policies of the last eight years. The Republicans’ Karl Rove playbook won’t work in 2008.

Battle the Republican attacks on our campaign today. Give $25, $50 or more.

Nancy Cooley of Maple Grove wrote to say she received a “survey”:

“As the caller got into his question, I heard a very negative slant against Madia. I felt it was a con and very negative. It angered me, and I told the caller this as I hung up.”

We’re angry, too, Nancy. Help us combat these deceitful Republican lies. Give $50, $100 or $200 today.

Another email. This one from Warren Blechert of Excelsior:

“I received a call from someone representing himself as a pollster. After several harmless questions, he asked me a disgraceful question designed to make me think less of Ashwin Madia. His next question was even more disgusting … He was only interested in changing my opinion in a devious, dishonest way … It made me certain that someone is desperately trying to discredit an honorable Iraq War vet who happens to be my choice for the U.S Congress. Some people will stop at nothing to try to persuade citizens to vote against Ashwin Madia. How can you trust people like that?”

Warren noticed.

Enough is enough. Let’s win the Third Congressional District together.

Sincerely,
Stuart Rosenberg
Campaign Manager
Madia for U. S. Congress

Michael Brodkorb’s crowing recently about Democrats push polling meant one thing: the Republicans were about to.  They’ve got a mediocre, milquetoast candidate who can’t decided if he’s wants to privatize social security or not, and who refuses to allow the Government to save money by negotiating drug prices with Pharmaceutical companies.  And all they can do to win is fight dirty.

The good new is, we’ve got a way better candidate! The NRCC has got a pile of dough, and Paulsen just announced that he’s raised over 2 million dollars — Madia can’t do it without you.  He needs your help, volunteer for his campaign today.  He needs your help, donate $5, $10, $25, $50 dollars today.

We’ve got 40 days till the election, and the lies, the smears and the attacks against Ash are just going to get louder and meaner from here on out.  That’s why you can’t sit idly by, volunteer for his campaign right now or donate whatever you can.  These aren’t easy times for anyone but every dollar you can spare can help make sure that things get better with Ash Madia’s leadership in Washington.

[Updated:] So what makes this different from what Brodkorb does and Paulsen does, what makes it I dunno… verifiable, is that the folks who got the push poll?  They’re right there.  Their names.  People in the third congressional district felt so strongly about this they were willing to put their names behind it.  It’s not some anonymous attack, it’s not some grandiose proclimation, it’s real folks talking about how they actually got these calls. Check out this article by MNIndy for more about the real people who responded to this, and the calls they recieved.

MNGOP Spins Wildly Over Erik Paulsen (Updated)

by
Sean Broom
Published on September 18, 2008 at 3:53 pm
, filed in CD3
. 18 Comments

Replaced Paulsen spokester Michael Brodkorb (and still, paid Paulsen staffer) put up a press release from the MNGOP which is basically garbage.  In fact, the best use I can think of for it so far, is lining the cage of that bunny to the right.  The first just spectacularly worthless quote is this:

Madia Allies Falsely Claim Paulsen Wouldn’t Protect Social Security. “Similarly, Paulsen, who has accepted thousands of dollars from the insurance and banking industries, refused to rule out privatizing Social Security… (DFL Press Release: “DFL Party: ‘Without A Doubt’ – Paulsen Is No Friend To Minnesota’s Seniors,’ www.dfl.org, September 17, 2008)

Paulsen Called For Social Security Preservation In Debate. “Social Security absolutely has to be preserved and protected, without a doubt. That is a contract. That is a bond that has been made with workers through the government. That needs to be carried on. The government should provide any incentives. I support incentives to provide additional savings that can be done on top of regular retirement, whether it’s through additional 401k savings, universal savings accounts, that’s appropriate. We have almost essentially a negative savings rate here in the United States and people need to set aside a little bit more money for their long term retirement.” (Erik Paulsen, AARP debate, September 16, 2008)

If you can show me in that quote where Paulsen rules out privatizing Social Security, I’ll give you a cookie.  Pauslen didn’t; he gave some wishy-washy political mumbo jumbo speak about preserving Social Security (what does that even mean?).  The Republican Party (not unsually) fails again.  But this is just the first example of a press release full of poppycock.  Hit the jump for all the rest, including most importantly Republican lies about allowing the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices.

Update: After the jump a press release from the Madia camp.

Continue reading ‘MNGOP Spins Wildly Over Erik Paulsen (Updated)’

Madia Has Momentum, Now is the Time to Contribute!

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on September 18, 2008 at 11:19 am
, filed in CD3
. 8 Comments

Ashwin Madia dominated Erik Paulsen in a televised debate yesterday. (Did you miss it?  Matt has a great post summarizing the key moment complete with video of the takedown.)  Now let’s keep his momentum going by contributing to his campaign.

John McCain is coming to Minnesota this week and the Madia campaign intends to mark the occasion by capitalizing on McCain’s most famous gaffe (so far).

At the end of this week, the Republican Presidential ticket will visit Blaine in an attempt to bring out their core conservative voters in Minnesota — and they’re coming right to our backyard. We know McCain, Palin and the rest of the Republican Party slate — including our opponent — are out of touch. In fact, McCain’s so out of touch he doesn’t even know how many houses he owns.

Let’s remind McCain how many houses he owns. Help us raise $1,000 for each house McCain owns.

This is a great opportunity to both tweak McCain and help Madia.  Don’t miss it. Contribute.

In Joint TV Appearance, Madia Eviscerates Paulsen on Drug Price Negotiations

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 17, 2008 at 2:30 pm
, filed in CD3
. 10 Comments

This video is simply amazing.  There are so many things going on that it’s difficult to even take in the severity of Madia’s domination with just one watch. First of all, that Erik Paulsen would wish to deny the Government from negotiating bulk drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies is just unbelievable; the VA does it and saves millions, AARP advocates for it, almost all other countries do it, the CBO found that we’d save millions by negotiating, and even the GAO admits that negotiation would save money.  Yet, not only did Paulsen vote against similar measures for the state while in the state legislature, but he still apparently opposes them for the Federal government today.  Then you have this weird initial moment where he knows he’s in a corner due to his legislature vote, so he tries to stear clear of making a definitive statement only to have him pushed by Madia into this absurd rant about it not saving money.  Then Madia completely knocks him down by throwing the correct figure back in his face.  And then Paulsen seems to, right there on the stage, say fine, even though he voted against this for the state when it really mattered.

On display below is Madia’s mastery of this policy area, Paulsen’s ineptitude at covering up his far-right voting record, and an example of where Paulsen disagrees with both the public and reality on an important policy area.  That’s a grand-slam folks.

Check it out:

Paulsen: Errors and Mess-ups in TV Ad

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 14, 2008 at 9:33 pm
, filed in CD3
. 7 Comments

Joe Bodell over at MN Campaign Report (first stop on my daily MN blogosphere tour) has a post up detailing the flubs in Erik Paulsen’s first TV ad.  For starters, the ad misspells “Rebublican” in the disclaimer text (image from MN Blue).  I know he’s trying to avoid the Republican brand (the frontpage of his website doesn’t have the dreadful “R” word anywhere), but misspelling it to avoid the connection seems a bit extreme.

In all seriousness, the misspelling is a humorous (if amateur) flub.  The really awkward move in the ad is citing a satirical astrology report from the StarTribune as fact.  Check the portion of the article Paulsen cites from in his ad [emphasis mine]:

Suspense surrounds the opening of the 2005 legislative session. How will two evenly matched and contentiously partisan camps ever get the state’s business done? Calling in psychologists or anger-management counselors doesn’t seem appropriate. Imposing legal arbitration or U.N. peacekeepers is out of the question. In desperation (and in jest) we turn our eyes to the stars. Building on groundbreaking research by jokesters at the Minnesota Business Partnership, here is a horoscopic analysis of the leading Capitol characters and their relationships, drawn from the Web site astrology.com.

It may be pure bunk, but that would make it resemble a fair amount of political commentary.

…

- House Majority Leader Erik Paulsen (Taurus, the bull) vs. House Minority Leader Matt Entenza (Libra, the scales)

Real world background: These two most often square off in debate on the House floor. A financial adviser in real life, Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie, is a fiscal conservative, cool under pressure. Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, is an urban liberal, former prosecutor and ready debater. He has recently come under fire by Republicans who accuse him of exercising undue influence in contributing $600,000 to election-year efforts that they say may have helped increase his caucus by 13 members.

The stars say: Paulsen likes to “debate and argue,” thinks quickly and is impatient with opposition. “You’re not awfully good at being disagreed with,” the star chart says.

Joe hits the nail on the head:

“Not awfully good at being disagreed with,” huh? Let’s keep in mind here that the ad in question was funded by the NRCC.  The national party organizations are allowed a relatively small amount of money - about $82,000 - to spend in direct coordination with a candidate’s committee on various projects - positive advertising, field, direct mail, whatever. It looks like the NRCC spent its entire budget line item on this one ad that misspells their own party’s name and tries to spin a three-year old satirical astrology report that said Paulsen is “not awfully good at being disagreed with.”

BREAKING: Paulsen Airs Ads on 9/11 Despite Madia Pledge Not to

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 11, 2008 at 1:34 pm
, filed in CD3
. 20 Comments

If you’ve been watching TV today you’ve probably noticed something a little off: there’s not a single Obama or McCain ad (or at least there’s not supposed to be) on the air today. The candidates agreed that as a sign of respect for the gravity of the day, it’s best to leave politics temporarily off the air. Sure, it’s just a token symbol, but sometimes symbols are important; it serves as a reminder that when it really counts, we all stand as Americans together. Moreover, it’s just the classy thing to do.

Congressional candidate Ashwin Madia agreed and decided that he would also pledge not to run ads today (a pledge he is honoring). To the best of my knowledge, neither Al Franken nor Norm Coleman are either. In fact, it seems that the only political candidate running TV ads in the 3rd today is Erik Paulsen. The NRCC is running Erik Paulsen’s intro ad today when his opponent has pledged not to out of respect for the anniversary of September 11th. Now, just for clarification because I’m sure people will point this out, this is Paulsen’s ad, but paid for by the RNCC as the $80K they get for a candidate specific ad. The committees are running ads today — I believe the DSCC is as well — but this isn’t a committee attack ad, it’s Paulsen’s. It’s on Paulsen’s website, it ends with Paulsen saying “I’m Erik Paulsen and I approve this message,” and it prominently features & advocates for him, but it’s paid for by the RNCC. It may seem like a technical distinction, but it’s not: Paulsen could have stopped this ad from running today.

Look, I’m not one to get all whacked out about not bowing to the Gods of political tokenism, but I think what’s important here is that one candidate has agreed to give up a whole day worth of political exposure with the understanding that his opponent would be decent enough to do the same, but instead Paulsen is taking advantage of the situation for his own political gain (it’s not my intention to intone that Paulsen knew about Madia pulling his ads and that’s not important to the bottom line of this post) — that’s a low blow. There’s no doubt that Erik Paulsen is a patriotic American, like almost all of us are, but it just goes to show that for all the flag-waving the Republicans do, it doesn’t mean much if it’s not backed up by a little thought.

EXCLUSIVE: NRCC MAKES AD BUY IN CD3 [UPDATE: Let's shoot for $10K!]

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 5, 2008 at 4:40 pm
, filed in CD3
. 0 Comments

The Madia campaign has done an impressive job of blowing the lid off this race by capitalizing on the opportunity to introduce Ashwin Madia to the 3rd on their terms and launching their television campaign early. So far Madia’s campaign has out-hussled Paulsen, out-raised Paulsen, out-messaged Paulsen, and the effect of this is showing.

It looks as though this hasn’t been lost on the Republican National Congressional Committee as they’re rolling out at least a two week, $73K cable ad buy starting September 10th. Let me repeat that: the cash-strapped NRCC, with literally dozens of districts predicted to turn blue this fall, is rolling out a big ad buy September 10th. This is a full 20 days before the DCCC has said they’ll launch in the 3rd. This means two things: (1) The NRCC is scared out of their mind. They see Ash outperforming Paulsen by leaps and bounds, while Paulsen sits on his thumbs. (2) The NRCC has realized that if they sit on their thumbs as well any longer, Madia’s going to run away with it. We don’t know for sure, but odds are that the ad will be an attempt to bash Madia’s brains out. It may be a pro-Paulsen ad, but usually the NRCC attacks.

Which brings me to the main point: Ash needs our help!! The Madia Campaign has been kicking major butt in the Third without TV help from any outside sources. Now, the DCCC or someone else may play this smart and move up their buy in response to the NRCC buy; this would allow Madia to define himself and define Paulsen before Paulsen even runs his own ad — checkmate. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The DCCC has previously put out a release stating they’re not going up until September 30. So barring any changes, Madia has to weather this storm on his own for now. That means he needs us.

Let’s keep this steamroller rollin’; Donate to Madia so that he can combat the NRCC’s desperate attacks before they’re even up and we can put him one significant step closer to victory in November. We can do this; let’s help Ash raise that $5000 by Saturday night!

UPDATE: Well, everyone has risen to the occasion and really helped Ash out because it appears that he’ll have raised $5000 by 6PM today. Let’s show how serious we are about our Congressional District, our State, and our Country by ensuring that Ashwin Madia will continue to have the resources to stand up to the National Republican political machine. Let’s double the challenge! Let’s raise $10K for Ash by tomorrow night so that he can continue to introduce himself to Minnesotans on his terms and fight our fight in Washington!

{edit by Sean} I bumped this post up to the top — why?  ‘Cause it’s important.

Paulsen Dodges Past in RNC Appearance

by
Matt Martin
Published on September 4, 2008 at 9:59 pm
, filed in CD3
. 0 Comments

It’s no secret that Erik Paulsen is planning to run a newcomer-as-incumbent race.  He probably thinks that Ramstad’s record approval ratings and victory margins will transfer over to him with Ramstad’s inevitable endorsement.  But the reason Ramstad enjoyed such wide support was that he fit his district when possible, and listened when he didn’t fit; he was a moderate and he cared.  Paulsen may very well care, but he is no moderate and he is no Ramstad.

Given the above, it makes sense that Paulsen’s address at the RNC was both boring and completely devoid of substance, but it was a little surprising that he forgot his own record.  Paulsen promised change and reform in Washington, but ask yourself if this sounds like either of the two [from the DFL’s press release reproduced below the fold]:

The above may be change from what’s going on in Washington, but it would be change for the worse!  And that’s pretty tough to do…

But guess what: when you’re in front of a national audience there’s no fact-checker, so the damage is already done.  If Ash Madia is going to fight this sort of baseless posturing, he needs our help. In response to Paulsen’s failure to address his own failed record in the Minnesota House or any of the real issues facing the Federal Government today (cough, Iraq) he’s set a goal to raise $2000 by Saturday night, let’s help him out!

Continue reading ‘Paulsen Dodges Past in RNC Appearance’

Madia Has Another New Ad

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on September 4, 2008 at 7:59 pm
, filed in CD3
. 0 Comments

Ashwin Madia has a new ad out today:

Nice ad overall, but the more significant aspect to this is that Madia has now been up on TV for a couple of weeks with no response from the GOP. Madia is really getting a chance to define himself before the GOP slime machine gets going. This could turn out to be a major strategic blunder on the part of team Paulsen.

Madia Sets The Tone (and raises money like it’s going out of style)

by
Sean Broom
Published on August 27, 2008 at 5:07 pm
, filed in CD3
. 65 Comments

Jeff Rosenberg at MNCR (the actual snarky one) reports today that Ash Madia has raised somewhere in the neighborhood of 350K — a number we’ve gotten confirmation on as well.

This blistering fundraising pace might allow Ash to surpass his impressive second quarter take — but what’s more important that simple fundraising totals is what the cash has allowed Madia to do; namely get on the air before Erik Paulsen.  See the thing is no matter how much replaced Paulsen spokester Michael Brodkorb and the GOP try, Madia is already defining himself to the voting public in the biggest venue he’s got, without any response from the GooPers.

Matt was right in his post about Madia’s ad — that it’s only a matter of time before Erik “Hey, what’s your opinion on Iraq?” Paulsen rolls out his ads.  But by then Madia will have already had some time to define himself to the voters of the 3rd — and any negligible COH (cash on hand) advantage Paulsen has over Madia will be neutralized by the Scrooge McDuck sized advantage the DCCC has over the woefully underperforming NRCC — and the DCCC has shown they’re willing to devote those resources to candidates who work dilligently.

Something Madia has obviously done.

CD3 Debate - August 21, 2008

by
Aaron Landry
Published on August 21, 2008 at 8:02 am
, filed in CD3
. 1 Comment

The UpTake is streamingstreamed the CD3 debate live this morning.

Update: I removed the stream as the debate is over. I’ll update this post with the video of the debate if The UpTake posts it.

In the meantime, MinnPost, MN Campaign Report and Twin Cities Daily Liberal covered the debate.

Paulsen Spokesman Brodkorb Dishonest About Push Polling

by
Aaron Landry
Published on August 20, 2008 at 2:14 pm
, filed in CD3
. 24 Comments

Zack Stephenson, Eric Pusey and others have been covering the unethical pro-Paulsen, anti-Madia push polling in CD3. What gets me the most though is that paid Republican operative Michael Brodkorb decided to be dishonest about it in an attempt to make the playing field appear level:

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.

The facts: AFSCME hasn’t been push polling in the slightest. AFSCME members were calling other AFSCME members simply urging them to support the candidate they endorsed. To compare this to push polling is wrong and incredibly misleading. To fabricate this excuse to avoid condemning the unethical push pulling is shameless. Michael Brodkorb and Erik Paulsen should be ashamed.

Push Polling in the 3rd

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on August 20, 2008 at 10:32 am
, filed in CD3
. 17 Comments

Erik Paulsen’s pals are up to no good.

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.

Push polling is an especially unsavory campaign tactic because it involves several layers of deception.  The first lie involves the identity of the caller.  The person receiving the call is led to believe that the caller is an unbiased source when in fact he is anything but.  Second, as in this case, the “poll” itself usually consists of several lies.  For example, the caller might ask “Would you be less likely to support candidate X if you knew he beat his wife?”  Push polling is the worst of American politics, just ask John McCain.

Unfortunately, push polling is hard to combat.  You can go to the press, but reporters often want to report on the content of the call, which makes the whole effort self-defeating from the push-polling victim’s perspective because the press accounts will just spread the lie (just look at various mainstream stories written about the email rumor campaign against Barack Obama).  Hopefully the Twin Cities media will be more reasonable (as MPR was) and report on the existence of the push poll without insisting on reporting the contents of the call.

One last thing on this subject.  The Paulsen campaign has tried to turn this back on Madia by claiming that AFSCME is push polling against Paulsen on Madia’s behalf.  This is a silly accusation.

Eliot Seide, executive director of Minnesota AFSCME Council 5, says his organization is not push-polling in the 3rd Congressional District. He says AFSCME members are calling other AFSCME members, urging them to support Madia, and he says the phone bank script does not even mention Erik Paulsen.

Not every phone call a voter recieves is a push poll and the AFSCME calls certainly don’t fit the profile.

Brodkorb now a Paulsen “Spokesman”

by
Zack Stephenson
Published on August 20, 2008 at 10:16 am
, filed in CD3
. 8 Comments

Yesterday, the Madia campaign presented the Paulsen campaign with a letter from Campaign Manager Stu Rosenberg asking  Paulsen to condemn push-polling calls that 3rd District residents have been receiving (more on that later).  MPR wrote a story about the incident that contained a interesting little nugget:

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.

Brodkorb disclosed a while back that he was doing paid work for the Paulsen campaign, but this is the first time I’ve seen him quoted on behalf of the campaign.  My previous understanding of Michael’s role on the Paulsen campaign was that he was working as a research consultant.  Now Michael has been authorized to speak on the record on Erik Paulsen’s behalf.  In my view, there is a big difference between these roles.  Anyone who has ever worked in campaign politics knows that the authorization to speak on the record in not given out to just anyone.  In a typical congressional race only one (and rarely two) staffers are permitted to speak on the record.  Erik Paulsen has entrusted Brodkorb with being the public face of his campaign, and that merits notice.

I called Michael a little while ago and he said that his position as Paulsen spokesman was temporary. He is apparently just filling in while the campaign is in between communications staffers.  And I want to be clear that there is nothing wrong with Michael having this responsibility and I also think that he has properly disclosed his paid work for Paulsen.  I just think that he designation as a Paulsen spokesman, even a temporary spokesman, is worth noting for future consideration.