I Guess This Shows How Nasty

Political Discourse Has Become...

From Twin Cities Public Television

It has gotten even more personal and nasty in the race for the Republican endorsement for governor.

Marty Seifert's campaign manager Kurt Daudt:

"Republican activist and state convention delegate Sandra Bergs family was victimized by a drunk driver. As a result, she was moved to share important information with fellow Republican state convention delegates about Tom Emmers record: two past DWI arrests; his efforts in 2009 as a legislator to weaken the states DWI laws and cover up the fact he broke them; and not sharing this information when asked about a possible October surprise at a recent candidate forum.

Sandras letter provides factual information about a vital issue for the delegates to consider: the electability and credibility of candidates. At her request, the Seifert campaign distributed her letter.

While there is much in common between Marty Seifert and Tom Emmer on the issues, there are differences too. Marty will continue to run an issues-based, substantive campaign to lead Minnesota forward."

Now Tom Emmer's campaign:

Eight days before the start of the Minnesota Republican State Convention, after falling behind in the straw poll vote, Marty Seifert sunk to a new low in dirty campaigning today by attacking Tom Emmer for his two DWIs from 20 and 30 years ago. Seifert used the story of a woman whose husband and son were injured by a drunk driver to help deliver his cynical personal attack.

“We’re all used to October surprises by the Democrats, but we never thought Marty would sink so low to launch this April surprise against a fellow Republican at the last minute before the convention,” said Rep. Mark Buesgens, Chairman of the Emmer for Governor Campaign. “The fact is that Tom has been upfront with delegates about this issue. They were the subject of a newspaper article last year and Tom has been very forthcoming about his actions to anyone who asked.”