KDSM TV 17, the Des Moines Fox affiliate decided to pull a 30 second ad that had Rep. Eric Palmer and the Iowa Democratic Party falsely attacking Republican candidate Guy Vander Linden. The Vander Linden campaign was notified by this morning by the General Manager of the station that they will not run the remaining schedule of the ad placed by the Iowa Democratic Party.
The ad said that Guy Vander Linden, ““traded on his Washington and military connections to become a lobbyist for a foreign corporation,” that the contract sent tax dollars overseas, and that he “gave money to a corrupt congressman being investigated by the FBI who helped steer the contract his way.”
Matt Strawn, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa responded to the news:
The false and personal attacks made by Rep. Eric Palmer are not only being rejected by voters but they are so false that a television station has decided to stop airing them. Guy Vander Linden is a former Marine Brigadier General who has flown two Presidents as a pilot of Marine One during his three decades of service in uniform. It is shameful for Rep. Eric Palmer to call into question Guy Vander Linden’s service to our country. It is clear that a career politician like Rep. Eric Palmer will say and do whatever it takes to win an election, even flat out lying about his opponent. Fortunately, television stations have taken notice and one station has even pulled these lies and distortions from their airwaves.
The Des Moines Register reported Vander Linden’s response to the ad:
Vander Linden said he has never been registered as a lobbyist, either at the state level or federal level. His job as vice president of defense programs at Agusta Westland didn’t involve lobbying.
He said the decision on the helicopter contract was made by the Department of Defense after a competitive bidding process.
No jobs were created overseas as a result of the contract. At least 500 jobs were to be created in the Lockheed plant in upstate New York, he said.
Federal election records show Vander Linden at the time donated $1,000 to the political action committee of Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The donation wasn’t an attempt to steer the contract to his company, Vander Linden said. The accusation “amounts to accusing me of a crime without a shred of legitimate evidence,” he said.
Wow, another truth–challenged advertisement from the Iowa Democrats… color me surprised. When you can’t run on the issues, this is the sort of crap you have to resort to.