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Home | Politically Connected | National Politics | U.S. House
Bachmann asks TV stations to pull group's ad
She calls the spot on the State Children's Health Insurance Program deceptive. The sponsor says she has no case.
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WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., under attack in a congressional showdown over children's health care, has been asking Twin Cities TV stations since Friday to pull an ad critical of her vote against a major expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
The TV spot, sponsored by Americans United for Change, a coalition of liberal interest groups and unions, alleges that Bachmann "would rather send half a trillion to Iraq than spend a fraction of that here at home to keep our kids healthy."
Bachmann argues that the ad is misleading because 80 percent of the funding for the war was approved before she got to Congress.
There was no indication Tuesday that any Twin Cities stations were pulling the ad. Almost identical ads are running against more than two dozen House Republicans nationwide in anticipation of Thursday's scheduled vote to override President Bush's Oct. 3 veto. The Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP, has been the subject of intense lobbying since last month, when large bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress approved a $35 billion expansion.
Critics, including Bachmann, have balked at the bill's cost, as well as what they see as an unwarranted expansion of government-sponsored health care.
Bachmann's campaign fired off a letter to TV stations Friday calling the ad a "stunningly deceptive attack."
One of the letters, addressed to KSTP General Manager Rob Hubbard, charges that the ad is "provably false" because Bachmann was not in Congress for the majority of the war.
Americans United spokesman Brad Woodhouse said Bachmann's criticism of the ad "defies the imagination."We didn't say in the ad that she voted for half a trillion dollars for Iraq," he said. "She supported the war in her campaign for Congress. This is a matter of her overall support for the war."
Woodhouse said KSTP has asked Americans United for "backup" to document the ad. KSTP general sales manager John McCormick confirmed his station's request for back-up documentation, but said it does not mean the station is considering pulling the ad.
Among others running the ad: WCCO, Fox and KARE.
Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753
Kevin Diaz • kdiaz@startribune.com
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