COLEMAN APOLOGIZES FOR LETTER SCANDAL

MNP

Mere hours after we originally reported on the issue, Norm Coleman’s campaign is featured in a front page article on MPR’s website apologizing for the inappropriate seeding of two identical letters to the editor. MPR reports:

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s re-election campaign is apologizing to two Minnesota newspapers for two nearly identical letters to the editor that ended up published under two different names. The campaign acknowledges a staffer was behind the letters.

The letters, critical of DFL Senate candidate Al Franken, appeared in the Minnesota Daily and the Winona Daily News

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Original story:

COLEMAN SUPPORTERS DEFRAUD LOCAL PAPERS WITH CAMPAIGN DISTRIBUTED MATERIALS

On January 25th the Minnesota Daily published a letter to the editor from Abul-Rahman Magba-Kamara, chairman of the UMN College Republicans. The letter’s a bit too long to post in the body here, but you can find the whole text below the fold or on the paper’s site here. But, just to give you a taste, here’s the first paragraph: "Al Franken’s traveled around the state to college campuses trying to get the votes of young people. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television commercials trying to portray himself as a nice guy. He even enlisted his fourth-grade teacher to give a testimonial about what a nice boy he was in elementary school."

A week later on February 7th, The Winona Daily News published a letter to the editor from Samantha Gronlund, a Winona State University student. Again, the letter’s a bit too long but the text is below the fold and can be found on the paper’s site here. And, again, here’s the first paragraph: "Al Franken’s travels around the state to college campuses trying to get the votes of young people are well documented. He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television commercials trying to portray himself as a nice guy. He has even enlisted his fourth grade teacher to give a testimonial about what a nice boy he was in elementary school."

Sound familiar? I think the sum total difference between the two paragraphs amounts to three insignificant changes… The startling thing is that they are virtually identical the whole way through and the thing’s 10 paragraphs long! Seriously, I’ve included both below the fold, it’s startling, but let me restate where we’re at: Two papers published identical letters to the editor attacking Al Franken within a 2 week span but attributed to two entirely different individuals.