Category: The Real Erik Paulsen

Have dishonest political ads become the norm?

To the Editor:

For several months I’ve watched as Erik Paulsen’s campaign, PACs, shadow groups, and even the Congressman himself resort to lie after lie about Dean Phillips and wonder why he resorts to such dishonest attack ads to win reelection.

After all, the facts are clear and verifiable:

  • Phillips has always provided health insurance to his full-time workers. And he pays a $15 minimum wage to help part-timers buy their own coverage.
  • As Allina Board Chairman, he was never involved in either negotiations or strategies for dealing with the nurses’ union. That’s not a board chair’s role or responsibility.
  • The Paulsen ads try to tie him to sexual-harassment complaints filed against Talenti Gelato, a company he once owned. Those complaints were from July 2015, more than a year after he’d sold the company.
  • Phillips was gone two years from Phillips Distillery when someone filed complaint about a marketing strategy that seemed to target youth, a campaign the company ended shortly after the complaint.
  • The Phillips Family Foundation, which Paulsen says “stashes money in offshore accounts” is a charitable organization that doesn’t pay taxes other than small federal excise taxes, so it has no reason to “stash” anything offshore.
  • The taxes they allege he avoided paying was actually an $89 fee assessed against and paid by his former company (Talenti Gelato) for filing a tax form late in 2013.

Continue reading “Have dishonest political ads become the norm?”

Minnesota Leaders Join Together to Condemn Erik Paulsen’s Unprecedented Negative Campaign as “Reckless,” “Inappropriate” and “Desperate”

Paulsen’s coordinated smear campaign uses sexual harassment survivors as political pawns against their will, a new low in Minnesota politics

Excelsior, MN — In a stunning editorial yesterday, Minnesota business and community leaders joined together to condemn Erik Paulsen’s outrageously negative and dishonest campaign. The influential group issued an incredible rebuke of Erik Paulsen’s campaign, labeling it “reckless,” and “inappropriate,” and saying that “he has exhibited some of the worst behavior and judgment that we have ever seen in a congressional campaign.”

Paulsen, who has previously worked hard to craft a “nice guy” image, has repeatedly doubled down on this, and other false, out of context and distorted attacks, in his 2018 campaign against Dean Phillips. And while Republican outside spending groups have garnered national attention for their strategy of coordinated personal attacks based on falsehoods, Erik Paulsen himself has paid for and approved five straight ads containing these lies. Paulsen has even refused to acknowledge a request made by an attorney on behalf of the sexual harassment survivors that he stop using them as political pawns and take the ad down and apologize.

Authors of this article include:

  • Bill and Penny George: Penny is chair of the George Family Foundation, Bill is former chair and CEO of Medtronic.
  • Ed and Valerie Spencer: Ed is a former Allina Health Board Chair, both he and Valerie are community volunteers.
  • Tad and Cindy Piper: Tad is the retired chairman and CEO of Piper Jaffray, both he and Cindy are community volunteers.
  • Terry Saario and Lee Lynch: Terry is the former president of the Northwest Area Foundation, and Lee is cofounder of the advertising firm Carmichael Lynch.
  • Jim and Carmen Campbell: Jim is a former CEO of Wells Fargo Minnesota, both he and Carmen are community volunteers.

They write: Continue reading “Minnesota Leaders Join Together to Condemn Erik Paulsen’s Unprecedented Negative Campaign as “Reckless,” “Inappropriate” and “Desperate””

Retiring Speaker Ryan in campaign push for imperiled Republicans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Retiring U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday launched a whirlwind tour of a dozen states, where he aims to pump up the campaigns of 25 embattled Republican members of Congress as the party fights to keep control of Congress.

With three weeks until the Nov. 6 congressional elections, most projections show Democrats holding a strong chance of gaining the 23 seats they would need to take a majority of that chamber and more effectively counter President Donald Trump.

Ryan will begin campaigning in the northeast, where he will appear with Representatives John Faso in New York and Leonard Lance in New Jersey, then go on to the Midwest next week to back Erik Paulsen in Minnesota and Rod Blum of Iowa and later return to the East Coast to campaign with Dave Brat of Virginia and Ted Budd of North Carolina.

View the complete article on the KFGO website here.

How I will be voting this year and why.

In the Nov. 6 election, I will do something for the first time in 50 years. I will be voting a straight DFL ballot.

After almost four decades as a Republican Hennepin County commissioner, 50-plus years as a Republican activist, and having probably chaired more Republican conventions than anyone in the state, let me say it simply: President Donald Trump is unhinged, and some of us who have been Republicans have to say it loud and clear.

Trump has hijacked the Republican label. Trump has little to do with the principles and standards of the Minnesota Republican Party over many years. Continue reading “How I will be voting this year and why.”

‘Working mom’ in Erik Paulsen ad is actually a Pennsylvania politician

The scene is straight from Campaign Cinema 101. Natalie Mihalek, self-proclaimed “working mom,” appears in a nice-but-not-too-nice living room, making her seem just like you.

She never says where she’s from. But since this is an ad for suburban Minneapolis Congressman Erik Paulsen, the implication is she’s just an everyday mom from, say, Plymouth or Osseo. The kind who brings lemon bars to science fairs and cheers supportively at her daughter’s T-ball games.

She’s here to talk about how “thrilled” she is with Erik Paulsen’s “middle-class tax cut.”

View the complete October 16 article by Pete Kotz on the CityPages website here.

Abandoning Any Pretense of Fiscal Responsibility, Republican Leader Calls for Cuts to Social Security and Medicare to Pay for Trillion Dollar Tax Cut for the Ultra-Wealthy

‘At the end of the day, this is a question of priorities. The GOP continues to make it painfully clear that their first priority is to make the rich even richer, at the expense of the middle class.’

This morning, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Bloomberg News what we’ve long suspected: the GOP’s only plan to address the ballooning federal deficit is to make deep and painful cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. His statement comes on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that the deficit has reached a six-year high of $779 billion, due largely to the trillion dollar tax cut for billionaires and wealthy corporations the GOP pushed through earlier this year.

Over 900,000 Minnesotans rely on Medicare for their health care coverage, and one-sixth of all Minnesotans receive Social Security benefits.

“The hypocrisy of Congressional Republicans is stunning,” said DFL Chairman Ken Martin. “After years of hawkish attitudes about the federal deficit, Erik Paulsen and Jason Lewis threw those principles overboard and decided passing tax cuts for special interest donors was more important than balancing the federal budget. Now they want us to believe that the only way to solve their manufactured crisis is to slash programs that millions of Minnesotans rely on. Continue reading “Abandoning Any Pretense of Fiscal Responsibility, Republican Leader Calls for Cuts to Social Security and Medicare to Pay for Trillion Dollar Tax Cut for the Ultra-Wealthy”

Paulsen is not Mr. Nice Guy

To the Editor:

Political candidates should talk about what they are going to do for our district instead of trashing their opponent. I am disgusted by Erik Paulsen’s negative TV ads opposing Dean Phillips. They constitute a Trump-worthy, personal smear campaign.

I cringe and mute the TV or change channels every time they come on. Based not on factual information but partial truth and innuendo, I see traces of antisemitism at the margins of these ads. I hope my district will not be fooled by the special interests funding them. We are smart enough to see through the tactics of using character assassination to get votes.

The Minnesota I know and love deserves representation for all of us in the 3rd Congressional District, regardless of party. We deserve and should demand a representative with civility who examines the issues, listens to all sides of an argument and builds consensus. Erik Paulsen won’t meet with his constituents, publishes strategic photo ops with veterans and makes school visits to court the 18-year-old vote. These are all superficial attempts to portray himself as Mr. Nice Guy. He is not. He votes the conservative Republican agenda 97.8 percent of the time, according to ABC’s FiveThirtyEight. We do not need Donald Trump representing the 3rd District. Please vote for Dean Phillips.

Mary Jane Miller, Minnetonka
MInnetonka Sun-Sailor, October 15, 2018

New Phillips Ad Offers a “New Way” Forward, Showcases Broad Support in Race for

Phillips continues to offer a positive alternative to Erik Paulsen’s lies and political distortions

Excelsior, MN – Dean Phillips for Congress released a new TV ad this week. The ad, entitled “New Way,” showcases the broad support Phillips is generating in his campaign, with Democrats, independents and Republicans of all backgrounds joining together to help repair our politics and change Washington.

While Congressman Erik Paulsen continues to wage one of the most dishonest and negative campaigns in Minnesota history, Phillips is running a campaign built on honesty, decency and radical hospitality. In the ad, Phillips is seen with more than 200 of his campaign’s 2,000+ volunteers, all of whom are doing the work of the campaign – phone banking, communicating with voters via social media, assembling lawn signs and even writing handwritten thank you notes to the campaigns now more than 66,000 contributors.

“Our campaign is one where everyone’s invited – Democrats, independents and Republicans who know that we can do better,” said Dean Phillips. “Not only can we clean up corruption in Congress, but we can get past the lies and political distortions that blanket the airwaves, and return to a time  when we were able to disagree without being disagreeable. I’m excited by the response to our message, and for voters seeking a new way forward, I welcome them to join us.” Continue reading “New Phillips Ad Offers a “New Way” Forward, Showcases Broad Support in Race for”

Democrats are going for laughs in their midterms ads. Republicans are going for fear.

Why 2018 candidates, parties, and PACs are getting creative with their political ads.

Bad political ads are everywhere. You know the ones — footage of a candidate walking down a quaint Main Street, touring a construction site wearing a hard hat, or shaking hands at a senior center while a disembodied narrator intones their life accomplishments.

Those ads make veteran political filmmaker Mark Putnam’s eyes glaze over.

“Without singling out any particular — I don’t need to — there are so many like that,” Putnam told me in a recent interview.

View the complete October 11 article by Ella Nilsen on the Vox.com website here.

Lawyer in Allina sexual harassment case blasts Erik Paulsen ad

The new TV ad from GOP’s Paulsen hits DFL challenger Dean Phillips over harassment lawsuit, but lawyer for claimants says Phillips had ‘no involvement.’

GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen listens to DFL candidate Dean Phillips at their debate at Minnesota Public Radio. Credit: Tony Saunders, MPR via AP

A lawyer for the women who sued Allina Health for sexual harassment blasted U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen on Friday for making it a campaign issue against his Democratic opponent, Dean Phillips.

Phillips served on the Allina board of directors from 2005-11. A new Paulsen TV ad calls Phillips “shady” and charges that he “did nothing” to combat the harassment.

Lori Peterson, a lawyer who specializes in civil rights and represented seven women who filed the lawsuit against Allina in 2007, released a statement Friday saying Phillips had nothing to do with the litigation.

View the complete October 12 article by J. Patrick Coolican on the StarTribune website here.