Negative Campaigning at Debate Minnesota Event by Congressman James L. Oberstar Appearing in Press Release on 2006-10-18. Grams breaks the rules on civility in campaigning that he helped craft; also stumped on the issue of skyrocketing college tuition Grand Rapids-Rod Grams knew the rules, but broke them anyway when he had his campaign staff engage in negative campaigning at a debate with Congressman Jim Oberstar in Grand Rapids last night. Grams served on the Debate Minnesota board until he launched his bid for Congress this year. The statewide non-profit, non-partisan organization was created because of concerns about negative campaigning. Here is an excerpt from the Debate Minnesota ground rules: "In addition to fostering substantive, content-based discussions among candidates for elective office, Debate Minnesota believes there is a need to restore civility to the election process and to raise the level of political discourse." Debate Minnesota officials were surprised and even a bit bewildered when a Grams campaign operative came up to Congressman Oberstar and handed him a piece of negative campaign literature. The Grams campaign continued to hand out the attack piece before and after the event. The handbill makes the false claim that Congressman Oberstar is not in Minnesota on a regular basis, a claim that has been widely disproved and discredited in news media reports. “Rod should understand that civility also means honesty,” Oberstar said. Oberstar did very well in the debate, which focused on three topics: the Iraq War, Transportation and the Mesabi Energy Coal Gasification project that is proposed for Northern Minnesota. There was also a 30-minute question and answer session with the audience. At one point, an audience member asked the two candidates how they would address the issue of skyrocketing college tuition costs. Oberstar said he was very concerned about this issue and proposed holding a summit with academic leaders and education officials. Grams stated that increasing funding for Pell Grants, which help "working class kids" go to college seems to trigger tuition hikes. He then went on to say that he did not know what to do about the problem. The debate will be replayed today on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midday program at noon. To learn more about Debate Minnesota, visit their website: http://www.debateminnesota.org/. See a copy of the Grams negative handbill at http://www.oberstar.org/images/visitors_pass.jpg. ###

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