In the beginning of this year, nobody thought we would have a competitive race in Minnesota's sixth district. The incumbant, Mark Kennedy, won with a 22% margin in 2002. But now, thanks to some great work by the DFL in recruiting candidates, we have a race that is receiving attention from both national parties and gives us a real chance to pick up another seat.
His opponent is Patty Wetterling. In 1989, Patty's son, Jacob, was abducted. He has never been found. In response to her son's abduction, Patty and her husband Jerry founded the Jacob Wetterling Foundation to protect children from sexual exploitation and abduction. Patty is very well known and respected here in Minnesota. In late July, Kos reported on a poll that showed a three-point race, with Patty getting higher name recognition that the incumbant Kennedy. Patty's favorable/unfavorable ratings were also significantly better than Kennedy's. Over the past five weeks, Patty has raised over $100,000 more than Kennedy. The St Paul Pioneer Press recently endorsed her; she was the only challenger in a national race to win their endorsement. She is police endorsed.
All of this has Kennedy very, very worried, and has resulted in a move that I believe could seriously hurt him. More inside.
Recently, Kennedy unleashed a new ad, titled
'More Surprised'. It is the first and so far only negative ad in our House races. And it is nasty.
The ad opens up with an attack on Patty's MoveOn endorsement, saying, "Patty Wetterling took $80,000 from a group that opposed fighting terrorists in Afghanistan after 9/11." Of course, Patty has repeatedly said that she supported our actions in Afghanistan, but that didn't stop Kennedy from attacking her on the issue. (An earlier Kennedy ad said it was wrong for "some" to say we shouldn't have gone to Afghanistan in Iraq, and features pictures of Osama and Hussein, but does not mention Wetterling by name).
The $80,000 figure is also a lie. While that amount has been channeled through MoveOn's online donation form for Patty, she has in fact only received $32 from MoveOn PAC.
The ad then attacks her for taking $50,000 from trial lawyers. But it's pretty clear who the special interest candidate in this race is. Wetterling's individual/PAC donation rate is 78%/21. Kennedy's is 50/46.
Now, remember: Patty is famous for working to help others after her son was abducted. He has never been found. She has run an all-positive campaign. And Kennedy has decided to roll out a direct attack on her.
Kennedy holds a huge cash-on-hand advantage over Wetterling. But hopefully the DCCC's promised $800,000 for the state will help take down Kennedy for good.
Oh -- remember the Pioneer Press? They weighed in on Kennedy's ad in their endorsement of Wetterling, calling it "baseless" and saying it showed "appalling judgment" by Kennedy.
Check out Patty's website here.