MINNEAPOLIS -- The latest attack ads by Congressman Erik Paulsen targeting rival Dean Phillips are extremely misleading to viewers, because they falsely imply Phillips knew about sexual harassment claims filed against Allina Health and chose to ignore them.
Phillips is the Democrat challenging Paulsen, a five-term incumbent Republican, in Minnesota's 3rd Congressional District. He's a political newcomer and has no voting record to attack. The Paulsen campaign and national Republicans are instead targeting Phillips for his business and volunteer work.
Phillips served as a volunteer on the Allina Health board for several years and was on the board in 2007 when seven women brought a lawsuit alleging harassment by a doctor at the Allina Woodlake Clinic in Richfield.
The Allina system includes 13 hospitals and 90 clinics. The board advises Allina but doesn't "run the company" as the ad campaign implies.
One ad entitled "Chairman of the Board" goes after Phillips and the entire Allina Board. Another ad, "Times Up" repeats the attack as part of a larger attempt to lump Phillips together with Congressman Keith Ellison, who faces an unsubstantiated abuse claim from a former girlfriend.
The narrator uses the inflammatory phrase, to say Phillips was "charged with" ignoring harassment. That falsely implies some type of formal action against Phillips.
The Woodlake case was later settled out of court, and the Minneapolis lawyer who represented the harassment victims was stunned to see it show up in a political ad 11 years later targeting Phillips.
"Dean Phillips had absolutely nothing to do with this case!" Lori Peterson, the attorney for the seven women in the Allina case, told KARE.
"And to see this being played out in an ad, as if it's a fact was just really bad. My clients wrote a letter saying this is really traumatic for us to see this on the air, asking the Paulsen people to take down these ads."
Business leaders react
Former Medtronic CEO Bill George also was alarmed by the nature of the ad. George, who now teaches at the Harvard Business School, said attacks like these could discourage business leaders from volunteering on boards.
"The Twin Cities has a great tradition of business leaders volunteering to serve on boards of foundations and nonprofits," George remarked.
"It's beyond the pale to attack people who served on the board. And this was 11 years ago on an issue that was settled. That decision never got to the board level. This was handled on the clinic level."
George, who served on the Allina Board at a different time than Phillips, said advisory boards are involved in general governance and long-range planning, but are careful not to interfere in day-to-day management.
He joined several other prominent business leaders in an open letter published in the Star Tribune opinion section, condemning the Paulsen ad and warning of the collateral damage to boards in general.
The ads claim a whistleblower sent a letter to the Allina Board warning them of the harassment at Woodlake. Phillips said he has no memory of receiving such a letter or having any board discussions about the harassment case.
The Paulsen campaign further said the case was "widely reported" in the Star Tribune in the time, so board members like Phillips should've been able to see the articles and respond to the issue.
Allina response
A spokesperson for Allina Health confirmed the volunteer board members had no involvement in the Woodlake case. Allina took the unusual step of responding directly to the "Chairman of the Board" ad.
"The ad suggests that in 2007 Allina Health did not appropriately respond to allegations of sexual harassment brought by several nurses. The truth is that Allina Health took appropriate action, consistent with our values and safe workplace policies. The employment of the person who was the subject of these allegations ended in January of 2007."
"As a not-for-profit community health provider, Allina Health does not engage in political campaigns. However, given the seriousness of the topic of sexual harassment we felt that it was important to address the claims in this ad."