IP hopeful in gov race makes eyes at Minnesota voters

Published 11:51 am Saturday, August 21, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Third-party governor candidate Tom Horner’s first TV ad plays up the left-right divide of his opponents through an unsettling set of eyes.

The ad from the Independence Party’s Horner focuses on a red eye peering right and a blue eye peering left, representing parties he says are looking too far in either direction. Horner appears only briefly on camera and says he’ll push “common-sense solutions.”

The ads will begin airing this weekend and be part of a three-commercial set through mid-September. His campaign manager says they’ll spend more than $100,000 over the next several weeks to run it, a modest buy stretched over such a long period.

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But Horner, a former public relations executive, is the only one of the three contenders with a TV presence since the Aug. 10 primary. Democrat Mark Dayton ran multiple spots in the primary run-up while Republican Tom Emmer hasn’t run any.