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Brown camp says ad got the facts wrong
Thursday, October 19, 2006
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown's lawyers are asking TV stations to pull an ad that accuses Brown of not paying unemployment taxes for 13 years, saying he paid the bill and the ad is "demonstrably false."
To back up their claim, Brown's lawyers attached paperwork indicating the debt was paid and the lien released on April 20, 1994.
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The ad by the Republican National Committee and its backup Web site, browncourtdocuments.com, alleges that the $1,776.23 debt remained unpaid until June 2005. The ad calls it a "scandal" that Brown didn't pay for 13 years.
"We stand by the ad," said Aaron McLear of the RNC.
But Carmen Stewart of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Brown paid his unemployment taxes after receiving a notice of lien against his congressional campaign committee on Dec. 2, 1993. He was released from that lien on April 20, 1994. At that point, Stewart said, he was supposed to file the document with the Lorain County Recorder. But the paperwork was either never received or never filed.
Joanna Kuebler, a Brown spokeswoman, said Brown, D-Avon, believed he had settled the lien and all related paperwork until June 2005, when he was buying a house. At that point an attorney notified him that he still had to file the paperwork associated with the lien.
FCC regulations bar "false, misleading or deceptive advertising" — and Brown's lawyers say the ad is that. "This advertisement is ... unquestionably and provably factually false," the lawyers wrote to TV stations.
Dean Ditmer, general manager of Dayton Channels 22 and 45, said the letter will launch a process that will include consulting with RNC lawyers and doing "due diligence" before deciding what to do.
Brown is challenging Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who also has an ad that refers to the debt. The campaign plans to remove the reference to how long it took Brown to pay, but will still refer to the debt. "Public record shows he was delinquent," said DeWine spokesman Brian Seitchik.
