After months of running a relatively-low key campaign, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken has for the first time called out his Republican challenger Mike McFadden in a broadcast advertisement, saying that the businessman's attempts at humor disguise his lack of substance.
Meanwhile, the McFadden campaign is firing back at Franken's claims of bipartisanship in the same ad, describing him instead as nothing other than a party-line voter and President Obama loyalist.
The most recent poll shows Franken with a nine-point lead over McFadden.
The dueling advertisements are the latest in the escalating war of words between the candidates.
Last week McFadden launched his third broadcast ad which features a Franken lookalike unsuccessfully attempting to back a trailered boat down a ramp, saying Franken "missed the mark" by voting with Obama. A previous hockey-themed targeted cable ad in the run-up to McFadden's May endorsement also called out Franken.
The new Franken ad, meanwhile, claims McFadden's ads, which have featured what appears to be a punch to the groin and do-it-yourself health care, "try to be funny," while attacking him, but that Franken has a track record of reaching across the aisle.
As soon as learning of the advertisement, McFadden's campaign decried the advertisement.
"Al Franken, who votes with President Obama 97 percent of the time, is the most loyal, partisan Democrat in Washington. That is a fact," said McFadden spokesman Tom Erickson. "For Senator Franken to make the audacious claim that he is bipartisan is a whopper of a lie."
According to the Washington Post, Franken, along with 10 other Democratic Senators, voted along party lines 99 percent of the time.
Franken spokeswoman Alexandra Fetissoff stood by the advertisement.
"Investment banker Mike McFadden is misleading Minnesotans, and voters deserve to know the truth about Sen. Franken's record of bipartisan accomplishment in the Senate. Whether it's jobs and workforce development, passing a Farm Bill, taking on Wall Street or helping kids with mental health issues."
Franken apologized on Thursday for a 2012 video in which he was featured holding up a pair of traffic cones to his chest to resemble breasts, telling Minnesota Public Radio that it was "A thoughtless moment and I regret it."
Franken said the 2012 video was shot in Arizona and he didn't know he was being recorded.
McFadden and the Minnesota Republican Party called on Franken to apologize for the video after First District congressional candidate Jim Hagedorn had to issue an apology of his own for years-old blog posts that lambasted gays, Native Americans and women.
Franken's most recent apology didn't appear to appease McFadden's campaign.
"For Minnesotans, this is déjà vu all over again." said McFadden press secretary Becky Alery. "Senator Franken promised that he would keep his head down, but his reluctant apology shows that he hasn't changed one bit and remains unfit for office."
