2 TV stations pull ad about Sestak; Toomey chides rival

Two Pittsburgh-area television stations have yanked a U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad blasting Democratic Senate nominee Joe Sestak's House voting record as liberal after his campaign complained that the spot was inaccurate.

Sestak had a "hypersensitive reaction" to valid criticism, Republican opponent Pat Toomey said Thursday.

The commercial, an independent expenditure by the business lobby, says Sestak "voted with Nancy Pelosi 100 percent of the time" and voted for a "government takeover of health care."

Both statements are false, Sestak campaign lawyer Jared G. Solomon wrote in a letter to 14 TV stations around the state - though none in the Philadelphia area - airing the ad, which began running Monday.

In the campaign's analysis of 22 "substantive" roll-call votes this year, Sestak voted against one measure supported by Pelosi (D., Calif.) - an amendment to the DISCLOSE campaign-spending act that would exempt large advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association from reporting requirements.

WPGH and a sister station, WPMY, agreed that the "100 percent" assertion was false and agreed to pull the spot, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported Thursday.

"The only thing that would be misleading and deceptive is to suggest there is any substantive difference between Nancy Pelosi and Joe Sestak," said Toomey, whose campaign had no role in the ad.

Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin said Thursday that no other stations had agreed to take down the ads but that talks were continuing.

Toomey's campaign acknowledged that, according to a calculation by Congressional Quarterly, Sestak diverged from Pelosi's position on two out of 33 votes the publication studied this year, both this month and last - so the two agreed 94 percent of the time. But their votes coincided on 100 percent of roll calls in 2009, and the average for Sestak's career in the House - which he entered in 2007 - is 96.6 percent, according to CQ.

"Congressman Toomey's frantic efforts to defend these lies are a desperate attempt to distract voters from his own record" of support for Wall Street interests, Dworkin said.

The Chamber of Commerce also has defended its ad, noting that although Sestak opposed the amendment exempting some groups from disclosure of campaign donations, he voted for the overall DISCLOSE bill - as did the speaker. The bill passed the House and awaits Senate action.

Sestak's campaign also says that the ad's reference to his support for "job-killing" energy legislation is false because some studies suggest that the bill would create jobs in green-energy industries.

In addition, it argues that the health-care overhaul Sestak supported did not amount to a "government takeover," as it keeps in place the system of largely private health insurance.