Dayton launches TV ad in Minn. governor's race

Former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton started airing his first TV ad in the governor's race Monday, signaling Minnesota television viewers are in for a sustained stretch of political advertising.

Dayton joined fellow Democrat Matt Entenza on the airwaves with a 60-second spot highlighting his travels around the state and plans to raise taxes on the highest-income Minnesota residents to bring in money for schools, highways, clean energy and seniors. Dayton said he plans a series of TV ads over the next eight weeks leading up to the Aug. 10 primary.

Polinaut: How much have Dayton and Entenza spent on ads?

That's when voters will pick between Dayton, Entenza and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher.

Entenza, a former legislator, has been running 30-second TV spots since late April. Kelliher spokesman Matt Swenson said she is preparing to launch her first ads after July 4.

The contested primary means Democrats are sinking campaign cash into TV to reach voters while Republican Tom Emmer and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner hold off.

Emmer, a state representative, faces only token primary opposition. Horner spokesman Matt Lewis said the former public relations executive hasn't decided whether to buy TV ads before a primary in which he faces four rivals.

Dayton wouldn't disclose how much he's spending on his commercial, which will run in the Twin Cities, Duluth, Fargo-Moorhead, Rochester and Mankato and on cable stations for the next two weeks. He said most of it came from his own pocket.

He said at a Capitol news conference that it was time to reintroduce himself to voters a decade after his Senate campaign. The ad starts out showing him behind the wheel, noting he visited all 87 Minnesota counties this year. It recalls his funding of senior bus trips to Canada for cheaper prescription drugs and his Senate vote against the Iraq war.

"His roots go deep in our state," the ad says. "Generations have shopped at his family's Dayton's and Target stores."

Republicans slammed the ad as a "reinvention." Deputy GOP Chairman Michael Brodkorb said it doesn't mention Dayton's poor reviews as a senator or the magnitude of the high-income tax increase he advocates. Brodkorb said he expects Dayton to win the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary.

"This is a gloss-over of his life," he said.

The only other politician mentioned in Dayton's commercial is outgoing Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty. Dayton said Pawlenty is more recognizable than Emmer, the likely GOP nominee.

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