Several major radio and television stations in North Dakota are scrapping a Democratic advertisement attacking Republican Senate nominee Rick Berg’s business record.
"[Monday’s] decision by North Dakota television stations to pull from the air the false attack by [Democratic nominee] Heidi Heitkamp’s largest campaign supporter confirms what we’ve said all along—the ad attacking Rick’s business background is untrue and inaccurate," Berg’s campaign said in a release.
The ad, paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, attempted to tie Berg to Goldmark Property Management, a real estate firm embroiled in controversy.
"The company was even listed as Berg’s employer on his real estate license and on federal forms," the ad, titled "Facts," says, as an image of a real estate license appears on the screen.
The "license" featured in the ad was actually a jumble of excerpts from four documents with no indication of their date of origin. Berg cofounded the company 30 years ago, but left prior to the resident complaints highlighted in the DSCC ad.
"Heidi Heitkamp bears responsibility for these ads since her campaign has been peddling negative and personal attacks against Rick in a very transparent attempt to run from her long record of enthusiastically supporting President Obama’s big government policies, like Obamacare," the release said.
According to the release, the DSCC has spent more than $3.3 million to aid Heitkamp’s bid to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad. Berg and Heitkamp are running dead even at 47 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics poll average.