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Erik Paulsen’s Negative Campaign Gets Even Worse
Paulsen releases fourth straight dishonest attack ad
Erik Paulsen has released his latest dishonest and negative TV ad as part of his ongoing smear campaign against Dean Phillips.
Despite the insinuations of Paulsen’s ad, Phillips was not the chairman of the board of Allina Health at the time the allegations in question were brought forward. And claims that Phillips, as a volunteer board chairman, was responsible for the day-to-day operations of Allina Health have already been called false by independent fact checkers.
“Erik Paulsen used to be known as the ‘nice guy’ but now he’s running one of the most outlandishly negative and dishonest smear campaigns of any incumbent politician in recent history,” said Zach Rodvold, campaign manager for Phillips for Congress. “Congressman Paulsen is so desperate to hold onto power that he’s even stooped to attacking community leaders at one of the Twin Cities’ most important health systems. This is what happens when you vote with Donald Trump 98% of the time and have no accomplishments to run on or anything positive to say. Voters deserve better.”
Paulsen has released five TV ads in the 2018 election cycle. The past four have been negative attack ads targeting Dean Phillips, and have been called “wildly out of context” and “just plain false” by fact-checkers.
On Monday, Phillips announced his intention to create a Truth in Political Advertising commission if elected, to help protect voters from misleading information spread by groups like Paulsen for Congress, the NRCC, and CLF the same way that consumers are protected from misinformation over the airwaves now.
The scope of the problem was highlighted in a stinging report by Politico, released yesterday, which outlines national Republicans’ strategy of spending millions of dollars on attack ads full of lies and distortions like those found in ads from Congressman Paulsen and the outside groups spending millions on his behalf.
Phillips is capturing attention from around the country for running a positive, people-powered campaign built on contributions from more than 65,000 individuals — and zero PACs, special interests, or members of Congress. In April, Phillips challenged Congressman Paulsen to join him in signing the Minnesota Way Pledge, a mutual pledge to eliminate special interest money and self funding, and reduce or eliminate spending from outside groups on both sides. Paulsen has refused to sign, and is now the 5th-biggest taker of special-interest money in all of Congress — while benefiting from millions more spent on his behalf.