ABM Executive Director, Denise Cardinal, responded in the Star Tribune yesterday to Katherine Kersten’s hit piece on Alliance for a Better Minnesota, pointing out that the real shady group in this election is Minnesota’s Future.

I was surprised to read Katherine Kersten’s column (“Dayton goes
negative, from a safe distance,” Aug. 29) about the organization I lead.
I was surprised I did not receive a call, e-mail or even carrier pigeon
note from Kersten for her extensive piece. I could write a section’s
worth of response to the inaccuracies of her column.

A few key points: Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer is the
reason for the publicity problems of Target Corp. — not my
organization. It’s Emmer who has stood in opposition to any family
rights for gay families, while Target provides these benefits to its
employees. It’s Emmer who has said climate change does not exist, while
Target is a leader in environmentally friendly practices. It’s Emmer who
has voted to cut education and would cut it even more if elected, while
Target donates to schools and children’s services in our communities.

My organization simply provided this information to the employees of
Target, and the information that their company was supporting him. This
is not bullying.

Tom Emmer supported a bill that would have lessened penalties for
drunken drivers. Suggesting, as Kersten did, that someone pulled over
and then arrested for drunken driving should be able to drive away in
their own car with their driving record intact is dangerous. The fact
that after having two drunken driving arrests himself Emmer would go
ahead and introduce this bill shows what kind of leader he would be as
governor.

In all of her attempts to make my organization seem like some shady,
out-of-state group, Kersten fails. It would be nice if instead she had
dedicated her column to a truly shady, out-of-state group running ads in
the governor’s race — Minnesota’s Future. Complete with a Virginia
post office box, a refusal to talk to the media and a cookie-cutter
website, Minnesota’s Future is spending hundreds of thousands in the
governor’s race to demean DFLer Mark Dayton.

DENISE CARDINAL,

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALLIANCE FOR A BETTER MINNESOTA