Three TV stations in Wisconsin have pulled a political ad that attacked former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) over the opioid over-prescription scandal at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Feingold’s lawyers sent a letter to the stations, calling the spot “false, misleading and deceptive,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
{mosads}The ad, backed by the Freedom Partners Action Fund, features a VA whistleblower accusing Feingold of ignoring a memo about the issue in 2009.
Feingold has previously denied receiving that memo, and his campaign pointed to a comment from the person who sent the memo, saying she doesn’t believe it was delivered to him.
Local stations in Madison and Green Bay agreed to stop running the ad on Monday, a decision praised by Feingold’s campaign.
Campaign manager Tom Russell said he was “very hopeful” that others would follow suit. He also called on Feingold’s opponent, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), to weigh in and “tell [his allies] that running false attack ads has no place in Wisconsin.”
Freedom Partners is now running an updated version of the ad that says multiple memos were delivered to Feingold and alleges that he didn’t act on them.