Madia: Do 3rd District voters really care whether he's married or plays soccer?

Madia: Do 3rd District voters really care whether he's married or plays soccer?

DFL 3rd District congressional candidate Ashwin Madia, pledging to push a positive message on the economy and not negative personal attacks, said he would have voted for the bailout bill the U.S. House of Representatives rejected Monday — if inaction were the alternative. But he said he wanted any bailout to include guarantees for middle-class mortgage foreclosure relief and oversight from outside the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Madia called recent attacks against him by allies of Republican state Sen. Erik Paulsen’s campaign — which have focused on his status as an unmarried non-homeowner, among other things — “bizarre,” stating that he didn’t see their relevance to the campaign. Several times, Madia repeated that he thought it didn’t matter to voters that he doesn’t play soccer. But Madia added that he didn’t see coded racism behind the charges that he didn’t fit the district’s demographics as well as Paulsen.

Asked about Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ads attacking Paulsen that some observers have called unfair, Madia said he condemned them to the extent that they were inaccurate. But he said campaign law prevents him from having any contact with such outside groups, so he couldn’t ask that the ads stop.

Madia said his own ads have been uniformly positive — with the notable exception of the latest, he acknowledged, which was issued in response to a Paulsen ad that marked the first candidate-sponsored attack video of the campaign.

Madia’s comments came at an afternoon news conference called today in response to a news conference held yesterday by Paulsen ally state Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina. After Madia finished, Michel and state Republican Chair Ron Carey, who were present for the press conference at the State Capitol, commandeered the microphone while reporters were still present and held another impromptu news confab of their own.

They continued to push the line that Paulsen better fit the district demographically because of his home ownership, children and spouse, and participation in youth activities — traits they said applied to the majority of people in the 3rd District. They denied that the argument contained coded words and phrases for racial or ethnic differences. (Madia’s parents are immigrants from India.)

Carey also called on Madia to sign a letter to the DCCC decrying its ads. Madia, earlier, had pointed out that like him, Paulsen is unable to do anything to rein in right-wing groups’ advertisements in the contest to replace retiring Republican Rep. Jim Ramstad.

To see video clips from the Madia press conference and the Republicans’ remarks afterwards, click here.