Pawlenty changes ad to rip Hatch

Posted at 12:15 PM on September 7, 2006 by Mike Mulcahy

Gov. Pawlenty's campaign is sharpening one of its TV ads to take a shot at Mike Hatch. The ad talks about Pawlenty's support for a proposal to require that 70 percent of every state education dollar be dedicated to classroom instruction. Here's part of the release from the Pawlenty campaign:

The new version of the ad ends with Governor Pawlenty saying: “Minnesotans deserve that kind of accountability. Mike Hatch opposes it. I’ll fight for it.”

The updated ad begins running today in the Twin Cities, Rochester, Moorhead and Mankato media markets.

“Now that Mike Hatch has staked out a position on this issue, we want Minnesotans to be aware of it,” campaign spokesman Brian McClung said. “Based on his recent statements to reporters, we know for certain that Hatch is not interested in bringing more accountability to our schools and supports a big chunk of our education dollars going to bureaucrats and administrators, not to students and teachers in the classroom where the funding would do the most good.”

McClung cites Laura McCallum's MPR piece and Dane Smith's Star Tribune piece for the information contained in the updated ad.

Both he and the ad fail to mention that one reason the Legislature rejected Pawlenty's initiative is that currently school districts statewide spend an average of 69.2 percent of their money in the classroom.

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories