If you had any doubts about how the Republicans were going to use Ebola in the 2014 elections, they have been put to rest. As we all would suspect, they are playing the Ebola card with nasty last minute attacks that leave little time for rebuttal. In the Minnesota Governor's race, the first sign was this full page ad in the Sunday StarTribune, with the largest circulation in the state. Notice the police tape near the bottom of the ad emblazoned "MARK DAYTON VOTE NO" with biohazard symbols.
At the same time, they hit the radio stations with an ad that starts "I'm concerned about Ebola. I'm not a nervous person but this outbreak has me worried. I'm getting concerned for my family". The rest of the fear mongering ad can be listened to on YouTube.
The rest of the transcript of the ad is below the orange Ebola virus particle.
"Governor Dayton says there's no reason for concern in Minnesota. But that doesn't make sense at all. Our airport is a huge international hub. And there's no travel ban, which is the first thing they should have done. People can just come and go from the infected areas. Frankly, I don't think Governor Dayton is capable of handling Ebola. He really messed up his MNSure health care program (Ed. note - this is Minnesota's ACA implementation). He spent $189 million and the website still isn't fixed. And costs went way up. It's not working. And he shut down his Senate office that time, too. He panicked under pressure. I'm not going to overreact, but I'm not voting for Dayton. I don't want my family put at risk. And if Ebola comes here, I just can't trust Dayton as governor."
(The Senate office shutdown was in 2004, when Dayton shut his US Senate office in an abundance of caution over a terror report. The GOP brings it up every so often.)
The crux of this ad: Protect your family from the scary Ebola by voting GOP.
Are people seeing ads of this type in other states?