The next ad in the guv race is the first to go on the attack. It’s a Matt Entenza ad and the campaign says it will start airing Monday (the day before Margaret Anderson Kelliher plans to launch her first ad). But the Entenza ad (below) is available via YouTube.
Until now, the guv ads have all been positive, biographical ads or ads highlighting one of the candidates’ positions. Folks have been wondering when things would get nastier.
Attack ads generally work, to some extent, at driving up the negatives of the target, but can also backfire on the sponsor, whom some voters will blame for dragging down the tone of the race. This is complicated in the dynamics of a three-way race. If A attacks B, the surest beneficiary is C.
But in this ad, the attackee is the Republican endorsee, Rep. Tom Emmer (A Bush Republican, a Sarah Palin endorsee, a Tim Pawlenty ally.) Since the race at this point is entirely for DFL voters (it’s primary) it’s a little hard to imagine DFLers who will be annoyed with Entenza for these characterizations. In fact, in DFL circles the biggest question primary voters have is which of the three DFLers will be most likely to beat Emmer. So Entenza stakes out the honor of first DFL contender to go after Emmer in a TV ad.
The first 15 seconds employ several of the familiar attack ad moves: black and white photos, pictures of the opponent with unpleasant expressions on his face, guilt by association, ominous music. Then, at the precise midpoint, the clouds, the music happys up and the candidates rides to the rescue. In this case, Entenza touts his record as a legislator opposing Pawlenty, then repeats Entenza’s idea of pulling Minnesota out of No Child Left Behind. Here’s the ad:
What think? Have a nice weekend.
Makes you want to run right out and vote for…
Dayton?
… and Dayton was where? Too afraid to run for re-election as a senator. We need someone who will govern, not just run a campaign.
Emmer will be please to be linked to a governor who, after eight years in office, still maintains an over 50% approval rating most of the time.
So Entenza is here probably in fact singing to his choir.
John–
Do you have a source for that?
After all, he was elected by a little over 40%.
And his current status as an absentee governor hasn’t helped.
Paul,
I assume you read the polls. So I am puzzled about your problem here.
John–
Most recent results I could Google showed Pawlenty rated better than the leg, but still at only 42% approval.
See
More lame pablum for the brain dead. But I’m sure Education Minnesota is impressed.
State and local governments laid off 95,000 employees in the first six months of 2010, and Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, estimates that 400,000 more layoffs will come in the next year. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculates that when private employers that work for state and local governments are included, job losses could reach 900,000.
Any DFL candidate who postures that he/she will prevent massive budget cuts is lying. What is needed is immediate impeachment of Wall Street/London agent Obama, so FDR policies can be adopted to save the nation.
This can only start with restitution (McCain/Cantwell/Feingold amendment) of Glass Steagall separation of commercial and investment banks, which was kept out of the new Fin/Reg bill by Obama/Franken/Klobuchar.
My memory matches Paul’s numbers; that Pawlenty largely enjoyed high approval ratings throughout his terms, though they’ve fallen this year.
On the subject of Entenza, the ad is likely designed to frame the race as Entenza v Emmer, not unlike the comments of MAK on MPR last week, during which she referred to her opponent as Emmer rather than her opponents Entenza & Dayton.
Now that Tom Emmer has secured all of the votes of all the waiters and waitresses of Minnesota, it is going to be a difficult race, because all these waiters and waitresses will be telling their customers what a great governor Tom Emmer will be.
I think John is just being a troll. I suppose Bush set the bar pretty low as far as lame duck approval ratings are concerned, but Pawlenty’s not exactly a shining star.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34074.html
(A KSTP poll, Take that as you will)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/141131/obama-job-approval-rating-down-among-independents.aspx
Excerpt: “Overall, 46% of Americans approve of the job Obama is doing as president in the June 28-July 4 aggregate, one point above his lowest weekly average. Obama’s average weekly job approval rating has not been above 50% since Feb. 8-14”
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2010/06/inside_tim_pawlentys_uniquely.php
Excerpt: “When the Rasmussen polling firm surveyed Minnesotans in late May shortly after the end of the state’s brutal legislative session, Pawlenty seemed to emerge once again fairly unscathed, with 52 percent of Minnesotans strongly or somewhat approving of his job performance.”
If approval ratings are a meaningful metric, it would seem that a candidate would be more likely to identify with Pawlenty than with Obama.
That Entenza commercial plays like a caricature; he should be embarrassed. Dayton, whose 2009 tax return (statement 6A) shows $3K given to MinnPost, has received favorable press here. I don’t believe his completely unoriginal tax the rich scheme will resonate with voters. Barring some unforeseen issue or misstep, MAK should easily win the DFL primary.
“Barring some unforeseen issue or misstep, MAK should easily win the DFL primary.”
As a MAK supporter, I’d like to believe that. But I don’t. It’s going to be tough. If she wins by a bunch, I’ll take that back and conceded you were right. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll understand if her many volunteers keep pounding away.