Tarryl Clark Responds to Michele Bachmann's Latest Ad

From the Tarryl Clark campaign:

STATEMENT FROM ZACH RODVOLD, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, ON MICHELE BACHMANN'S LATEST MISLEADING ATTACKS, RECYCLED IN NEW AD
Bachmann again attacks Clark for a voter-approved measure that she herself claimed to support

"For the third week in a row, Michele Bachmann is on the air with a misleading attack ad featuring a paid actor calling himself 'Jim.' And for the second week in a row, Bachmann is using Minnesota's Legacy Amendment - which passed with widespread support in 2008, receiving 30,000 more votes in the 6th District than Bachmann herself - to attack Tarryl Clark. This line of attack has already failed the truth test, as have countless other claims made by Bachmann in the past year.

Voters in this district and across the state are fed up with misleading, false, and over-the-top partisan attacks, which is all that Bachmann has offered her constituents to date. By contrast, Tarryl Clark has spent months speaking honestly to voters about the challenges we face. Tarryl is building a winning coalition of police officers, teachers, business leaders, nurses, fire fighters, farmers and working families from St. Cloud to Stillwater. They all know that the 6th District deserves better, and that's why they're backing Tarryl Clark for Congress."

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FACT CHECK

LINE: Hi, It's Jim again. It's back to school time here in Minnesota and you guessed it, Taxin' Tarryl Clark has a tax for that.

Wanna buy some crayons? She's got a sales tax increase for that ... Buy a backpack? She's got a tax for that, too.

• This is a reference to the voter-approved Legacy Amendment, a connection dubbed misleading and wrong by Politifact and KSTP's Truth Test, which gave Bachmann's last ad an overall D+. [http://minnesotaindependent.com/64505/mpr-bachmann-ad-wrong-on-corn-dog-tax AND http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1731503.shtml?cat=1]


• In fact, Bachmann herself apparently supported the Legacy Amendment, so Bachmann is attacking her opponent for an Amendment that she herself supported. "Coleman, Bachmann and Franken spoke in August at Game Fair in Anoka of their support of the Clean Water amendment. Coleman and Bachmann also displayed blaze orange "Sportsmen vote yes" placards in their Game Fair booths," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune on 10/23/08. [http://www.startribune.com/sports/33174964.html]


• The Legacy Amendment was approved overwhelmingly by voters in the 6th District - 55%. It received nearly 30,000 more votes than Michele Bachmann did, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State. [www.sos.state.mn.us]

LINE: Drive your kids to school? She's got a gas tax hike for that.

• Tarryl voted in favor of the bipartisan transportation veto override in 2007 [HF 2800]. The price of gas at the end of 2007, prior to the gas tax increase was $3.02 per gallon. The price of gas today is $2.76 per gallon. People are NOT paying more for gas as they take their kids to school.


• The bipartisan bill was negotiated with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce as well as hundreds of groups representing thousands of 6th District voters.


• Funds from this bill were used to rebuild the Hwy 23 bridge without federal support and despite Bachmann's objection.
  [Catherine Richert, MPR PoliGraph, September 3, 2010]