In one of his first addresses since winning the DFL nomination for governor, Mark Dayton urged all sides of the political race to tone down negative attack advertisements, the Associated Press reports.

Dayton’s Thursday press conference coincided with a negative ad released a day earlier by the Minnesota Republican Party calling him "erratic" and criticizing his political career.

It’s important the candidates don’t get dragged into a "political sewer," Dayton said at the conference.  He urged third-party groups, like Alliance for a Better Minnesota, which ran ads attacking his Republican opponent Tom Emmer, to keep the race clean.

State Republican party Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb called Dayton hypocritical because the group received large contributions from members of the Dayton family.

“Here’s the deal: Mark Dayton’s son, his cousin, his aunt and his ex-wife can write checks to the Republican Party for $851,000 and we’ll continue to fund our ads and then we’ll talk about a cease-fire,” Brodkorb said.