MPR Ad Watch
Bill Wareham, 9/18/96

This election season Minnesota Public Radio is analyzing some of the television spots the U-S Senate candidates and their surrogates are using to influence voters. More than a dozen have aired since May...but only a few of those have come from the candidates themselves. Today Minnesota Public Radio's Bill Wareham looks at ads produced by the Boschwitz and Wellstone campaigns:

Astute television viewers who read the "paid for" announcements at the end of political ads will notice ads produced by a candidate's own campaign have a softer tone than those coming from the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Minnesota DFL. Unlike the NRSC ads that call Paul Wellstone an 'ultra-liberal' -- Rudy Boschwitz's first spot makes no mention of the incumbent. This is partly explained because it ran before the primary...when Boschwitz was running against fellow Republicans...although he maintained even then his only real opponent is Wellstone.

The ad makes no specific references to votes Boschwitz made during his two terms in the Senate...so it's hard to say what qualifies him as an independent voice. Of 24 key votes the Almanac of American Politics identified between 1985 and 1988 -- Boschwitz defied a majority of Republicans only once...when he voted against the death penalty for certain drug-related murders. By contrast...his Republican colleague David Durenberger defied the caucus majority 11 times in those 24 votes.

Again...Boschwitz is short on specifics...but the agenda accurately reflects his public statements. Clay Steinman -- a communications professor at Macalester College -- says the ad creates an interesting juxtoposition of two messages...one -- that Boschwitz is an independent voice -- and two...that he has a standard Republican agenda...even though the ad never specifies party affiliation.

Wellstone also includes a feel-good ad in his first round of advertising -- one that stands in contrast to...and plays off of...the humorous ads that marked his 1990 Senate campaign.

Like Boschwitz...Wellstone here makes an overt stab at the "Minnesota values" theme. Clay Steinman says he gets impression the ad is aimed directly at the independent suburban voter that presents the biggest challenge for the Wellstone campaign.

Wellstone doesn't lay out an agenda for the future as much as he refers to specific stands taken during his term: Support for the minimum wage and tax deductions for college tuition and job training...opposition to Medicare cuts...and his vote against a welfare overhaul. Like Boschwitz...Wellstone makes no reference to party affiliation. Reform party candidate Dean Barkley -- who ran some television spots in his 1995 Senate bid -- has not run any ads yet this year. His campaign says it is too strapped for cash to join Wellstone and Boschwitz on the airwaves at this point in the campaign. I'm BW, MPR.