Political attack ads unpopular - but they work

`A blow-dried bellhop to the rich."

That's how Mike Freeman, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Partycandidate for governor in Minnesota, described a Republican opponentrecently, admitting he cribbed the insult from fellow Democrat TedMondale, also a candidate for governor in the Sept. 15 primary.

And Freeman, son of the former governor and AgricultureSecretary Orville Freeman, says he believes in campaigning in thestyle of "Minnesota nice."

Uh-oh. The 1998 election cycle is well under way. And so arethe parade of the barbs, the commercials, the snide remarks, theinnuendo, the negativism that voters say they hate.

Voters say they hate them, but they …