Campaign ads

WaPo listing of Erik Paulsen in Top 5 U.S. House campaigns needs a fix or 2

Minnesota’s U.S. Representative-elect for the Third District, Republican Erik Paulsen, ran one of the best five House campaigns in the country, according to the Washington Post blog The Fix. Paulsen “beat back the anti-Republican trend,” writes Chris Cillizza, “by focusing on his own accomplishments in the state legislature.” The Fix tracked the Third District contest closely throughout the campaign season as one of the nation’s most competitive congressional contests. But in several ways Cillizza’s summary this morning doesn’t exactly square with how home-state observers might recall the race.

Still sign season, cont.: Paid outdoor campaign ads linger along with recount

minnesota, recount, senate, al franken, norm coleman, billboards, clear channel, nra, national rifle association, political victory fund, central avenue, minneapolis

Canvassing Board aftermath: ‘A good day’ vs. ‘Florida-style confusion’

In the aftermath of the Minnesota State Canvassing Board request today that counties sort absentee ballots to find any that were wrongly rejected, U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign pledged to petition the state Supreme Court for uniform standards of sorting for counties to follow.”[T]here is [sic] no longer any uniform, statutory levels or standards by which legally rejected absentee ballots are being considered and reviewed in Minnesota,” Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak said. Franken attorney Marc Elias responded: “There is a uniform counting standard in Minnesota: It is the election code of Minnesota.”

Franken unveils web ad to highlight wrongly rejected absentee ballots

The Al Franken for Senate campaign unveiled a new web ad today entitled “My Vote” that highlights the stories of Minnesota voters who say their absentee ballots were wrongly rejected. A companion Web site, CountMyVote, is designed to collect voter testimonials and comments on the vote count and recount in the Minnesota Senate election.

TV ad best-of lists bestow consolation prizes on Franken, Coleman, Madia

Three Minnesota candidates who didn’t win their elections — or haven’t won yet anyway, with the U.S. Senate race still in limbo — can take a little consolation in having their television ads (or ads meant to benefit them) honored on national best-of lists. “Running,” the first TV ad that Democrat Ashwin Madia aired in his losing bid to replace U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District, was this morning ranked among the nation’s eight best ads in U.S. House races this year by The Fix, a Washington Post blog. Videos and more best-of listings after the jump, including the ad attacking Madia that used clips from “Running.”

Coleman’s ‘Victory’ mimics Obama’s ‘Change’

Maybe Norm the Shopper heard about the clearance sale at the Obama campaign’s online store. As of Wednesday, the Coleman for Senate Web site greets visitors with a spare, elegantly designed screen with the word “Victory” against a blue background. It’s a design that mimics the graphics of President-elect Barack Obama’s “Change” motif. (Compare Coleman’s splash screen [...]

MnIndy video: Election fever is everywhere around university

Voting was heavy across the University of Minnesota’s campus-area precincts in Minneapolis today — and so were the arms of young people at almost every corner, waving signs that were mostly of one description: Obama for President. At Marcy Open School in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood where students mix with plain folks, the line to vote stretched out the door. There and at Coffman Memorial Union on the U of M campus, many university students took advantage of Minnesota’s same-day voting law to cast their first ballots for president. Here’s the video, after the jump — and don’t drink every time you see a sign.

Witnesses claim Somali polling place translator was telling people to vote for Coleman

Earlier today, three voters of Somali origin at the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis told me — and two told an election observer — that a translator working there was instructing people to vote for Sen. Norm Coleman.

In addition, the presence of a Coleman staffer who says he came to volunteer his services as a GOP challenger or translator also stirred controversy between election judges and challengers.

Did KSTP tip Paulsen on results of Survey USA’s new re-do poll?

A new Survey USA poll shows for the first time a spread between the two leading candidates in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District that’s greater than the margin of error. It’s a sudden swing that Survey USA suggests might be due to a TV ad that darkens Democrat Ashwin Madia’s skin. But if so, the effect would seem to arise more from recent news reports about the ad than from the ad itself, which came out a full week before the first of Survey USA’s latest pair of back-to-back polls. Another way Republican Erik Paulsen’s ahead: KSTP gave Paulsen’s campaign an early preview of the poll results, according to Joe Bodell. And David Dillon’s camp says the poll is a re-do because the Survey USA left the Independence Party candidate’s name off last time.

Coleman’s closing argument

Sen. Norm Coleman has released a new two-minute ad that will air on all major televisions networks at 6:58 this evening, according to Political Animal. It’s a sober spot featuring various individuals testifying to Coleman’s track record on issues such as adoption and the economy. No mention is made of nemesis Al Franken or the [...]