Mark Fischenich

MANKATO — The attack ads are flying in the 1st District congressional race, and both the Tim Walz and Gil Gutknecht campaigns are complaining.

Gutknecht and COLAs

The primary complaint from the campaign of Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht revolves around the assertion — made by a pair of Walz-sponsored ads — that Gutknecht voted to raise his own pay while opposing an increase in the minimum wage and a bonus for troops fighting oversees.

“Each time there’s been an up-or-down vote, he’s voted to block the pay raise,” said Gutknecht campaign spokesman Bryan Anderson.

A look at the congressional record shows Walz is closer to the truth than Anderson.

When efforts were made to halt the automatic pay raises in each of the past two congressional sessions, Gutknecht opposed those efforts, according to the congressional vote-tracking organization Roll Call. Gutknecht voted on June 13, 2006, and June 28, 2005, to allow the cost of living adjustments for members of Congress to take affect when he joined a majority of other lawmakers in killing the pay-freeze effort.

The only members of the Minnesota delegation who supported the effort to block the pay raises each year were Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and Collin Peterson and Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy. Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad opposed one and supported the other.

Anderson insists that voting to stymie efforts to block an automatic pay raise isn’t the same as a voting for a pay raise, even if the result — bigger paychecks for members of Congress — is the same.

The most recent increase will put rank-and-file members of the House at an annual salary of $168,500 starting Jan. 1.

Walz and walls

The Walz campaign is alleging that two statements in the latest Gutknecht attack ad are false. The first involves the statement in the ad “Tim Walz says increasing border security is a waste of money.”

The Walz campaign sent out a written response to the ad that states Walz told Gutknecht at a Rochester debate that he supports border security.

The Gutknecht campaign ad lists a Pipestone County Star opinion piece Walz wrote as proof of the accuracy of the characterization. Walz wrote in that piece that immigration issues need to be addressed with broader solutions than simple border security, and compared Republican efforts to the construction of the Great Wall of China.

“Dumping money into border enforcement is the American equivalent of building a wall,” he wrote, “and I won’t stand by while taxpayers’ dollars are wasted on a solution we already know doesn’t work.”

So if Gutknecht’s ad said “Tim Walz wrote...” instead of “Tim Walz says ...”, it would be an accurate — although incomplete — summary of what Walz wrote in the Pipestone newspaper.

Amnesty accusation

The Walz campaign’s second complaint from the ad involves the accusation “Tim Walz supports a plan to give amnesty to 11 million illegals already here.” It cites a July 6 New Ulm Journal story.

“Rep. Gutknecht’s statements about my position are completely false,” Walz stated in the response to the ad. “He knows that they are false because he has sat beside me at debates and heard me advocate for stronger border security and against amnesty.”

The New Ulm Journal story cited by the Gutknecht ad doesn’t seem to support the allegation that Walz supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. Walz is directly quoted in the story saying he would support allowing illegal immigrants “to get in line for citizenship, but only after returning to their country of origin.”

Amnesty in the illegal immigration debate generally involves plans to allow certain undocumented workers to become legal and work toward citizenship if they pay back taxes and meet other conditions. Walz’ approach as described in the Journal story — forcing them to return to their own country — doesn’t seem to mesh with the statement in the Gutknecht ad.