Chamber's Anti-Sestak Ads Back On Pittsburgh TV

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has convinced two Pittsburgh-area television stations to resume running ads it wanted to air attacking the voting record of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.  The stations pulled the ad Wednesday after an attorney for Sestak's campaign complained that it was inaccurate.

At issue:  The ad claims Sestak voted with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 100 percent of the time when his record is actually 97 percent.  Bill Miller, vice president for political affairs at the Chamber, today said the ad was citing "votes of substance" on major issues like health care reform and not procedural votes. Miller derided Sestak's attempt to kill the ad, which was pulled from the air for one day, a "ludicrous" act of "desperation."

"We felt very strongly that in the 111th congress on the votes we made the case factually that Joe Sestak voted with Nancy Pelosi 100 percent of the time," Miller said. "I find it most amusing that the Sestak campaign would try to challenge that by saying the congressman only voted with Nancy Pelosi 97 percent of the time."

Sestak's campaign, which has also asked television stations in Harrisburg, Scranton and Johnstown to stop airing the ad, yesterday said it was "full of false and misleading and deceptive statements" and called the Chamber "a wealthy and ultra-conservative interest group from outside Pennsylvania."

You can see the ad and read Toomey's response to Sestak's efforts in this post from yesterday.