Democratic PAC refuses to pull misleading AG race ad

A Democratically funded federal political action committee on Wednesday refused to take down a misleading television commercial criticizing David Freed, the Republican nominee for state attorney general, even though Democratic nominee Kathleen Kane requested it on Tuesday.

Someone from the Committee on Justice & Fairness just sent us this email: "... regarding Kathleen Kane asking us to take our ad down, the Committee for Justice and Fairness will continue to run our independent ad. We have the right to speak about Mr. Freed's position on this important issue and we intend to do so. We did not coordinate with any candidate or other organizations on this ad."

The ad hits Freed on three topics, most seriously claiming that he said there was no need for a review of how the state Attorney General's Office investigated the Penn State University child sex abuse scandal that sent former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky to prison.  Freed has said he would conduct such a review if elected.

As we explained in a story today, The Committee on Justice & Fairness is funded entirely by the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) and the women who run the PAC work for a political consulting firm that does work for DAGA.  DAGA has not responded to phone calls or emails about the ad.

Freed's campaign manager, Tim Kelly, denounced the ad as "false" but said there was little the campaign could do to stop it.  Kane called the ad "misleading" and sent a letter to television stations in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Lancaster asking them to stop airing it.