The Kennedy ad in question
Mark Kennedy's U.S. Senate campaign released the ad that got Klobuchar spokeswoman Tara McGuinness fired last week. This is the ad that blogger Noah Kunin accessed (by typing in 18 different passwords) off of the website of Kennedy's media consultant. Kunin notified McGuinness who viewed the ad. That led to her firing. View the ad here. The Kennedy campaign says it's the "rough cut" and was never finished. The ad doesn't bring a new criticism. Instead, it raised Klobuchar's lobbyist history in a different light (the lobbyist issue was raised in previous Kennedy ads as well).
The Kennedy campaign also suggested Klobuchar or some other Democratic entity is push polling on the ad in question. They released a statement by Former GOP Governor Al Quie that said he was polled on Klobuchar's career as a registered lobbyist the day before Klobuchar's campaign revealed that someone in their campaign saw the ad. Kennedy campaign manager Pat Shortridge says he believes this is the "smoking gun" that Klobuchar's campaign (or another Democratic group) is using the ad in question for political advantage.
Klobuchar's campaign manager, Ben Goldfarb, called the accusation "absurd" and said last week's flap hasn't changed their campaign strategy. He said the campaign turned over the issue to the FBI and said that's all they would say about the issue.
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