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It's that time of year when political ads are flying fast and furious on TV, radio and the internet. Some of them are true, some are misleading and some are just downright false. PoliGraph reporter Catharine Richert talked about the ads with Cathy Wurzer.

What themes are we seeing in this year's campaign ads?


Two themes up and down the ticket are wealth and elitism, the haves an the have nots. Take, for example, some of the ads running in the 8th Congressional District, where you have DFLer Rick Nolan running against Republican Stewart Mills, whose family runs Mills Fleet Farm. 


Mills's wealth is really no secret, and Democrats in Washington have been using it to paint him as someone who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and that he's out of touch with the financial woes of average Minnesotans. 


There's one ad that really stands out to me that was paid for by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 

This ad has a Mills look alike jetting off on a yacht at sunset

, sipping champagne and grilling some lobsters. Even the fonts used to spell out "Stewart Mills the Third" look luxurious. 

PoliGraph said this ad was misleading at best

What's the story about the ad against Rick Nolan in the 8th District paid for by the American Action Network?

. AAN is a powerful political group based in Washington, D.C., run by former Minnesota U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, and a version of the ad is playing in competitive races all across the country.


The ad covers a lot of ground. We looked at each claim about Nolan's record individually and found most of them dodged the truth. 


First, the ad says Nolan voted to keep special healthcare perks for Congress in the Affordable Care Act. This claims is false simply because there are no special perks for congressmen in the law.


We also gave the ad's claim that Nolan voted to keep first class airfare for members of Congress a false rating. Basically, there was a tiny provision tucked into the last Republican budget that said no more taxpayer dollars for first class tickets. Like every other Democrat, Nolan voted against that massive Republican budget because it was written by the GOP, not because of this particular provision. Incidentally, the Democrats put out their own version of the budget which included the same provision and Nolan voted for that.


The only part of the ad where the American Action Network is on solid ground is their claim Nolan voting to increase his pay. This is essentially true, but those votes are very old, from Nolan's first few terms in Congress back in the 1970s.


And the last part of the AAN ad about Nolan voting against veterans benefits is misleading too. 


The Minnesota House races are pretty hot, too, and what we're hearing here is more about Twin Cities elitists versus rural Minnesota. You've got GOP TV ads running against vulnerable DFLers who represent rural districts that say so-and-so voted with "the Twin Cities elite" to bring Obamacare to Minnesota or in favor of the new Senate Office Building.

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Catharine Richert

Here's a look at some of the political ads flooding the airwaves this campaign season, and whether there's any truth behind them.

It's that time of year when political ads are flying fast and furious on TV, radio and the internet. Some of them are true, some are misleading and some are just downright false. PoliGraph reporter Catharine Richert talked about the ads with MPR's Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer.

Q&A: Wealth, elitism dominate Minnesota campaign ad themes

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