RGA plans new ad; 2 stations pull last ad

The Republican Governors Association is planning a new ad campaign in North Carolina.

Set to begin Friday, the new campaign follows criticism of the association's last ad that caused two TV stations to pull it from the air. WLOS-TV in Asheville and WXLV-TV in Winston-Salem — both owned by Sinclair Broadcasting — stopped running the last ad after a complaint from Beverly Perdue's campaign.

RGA spokesman Chris Schrimpf said Thursday afternoon that the group's new ad will be different from the earlier ad but will follow the same theme, tying Perdue to the Raleigh status quo.

Jack Connors, general manager for WLOS, had said earlier Thursday that the RGA had changed its last ad to meet the scrutiny of Sinclair's attorneys. Schrimpf said that is incorrect and that the new ad has nothing to do with the last one.

A copy of the new ad will be made public Friday, Schrimpf said.

UPDATE and CORRECTION: This post has been revised to reflect new information.

More after the jump.

GOP ad to air Tuesday

The controversial state GOP ad featuring the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is scheduled to begin airing Tuesday, according to state Republican officials.

Several stations have agreed to run the ad including WECT, WCTI, WLOS, and WXII, according to Brent Woodcox, the GOP spokesman, reports Rob Christensen.

But several other stations have declined to run the commercial including WRAL, WSOC and WBT.

Woodcox said the ad has been successful in raising money for the party. The ad has raised between $10,000 and $20,000, which will help pay for airing the commercials.

The ad includes film footage of some of the provocative remarks by Wright, who is the former pastor of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

And it ties Democratic gubernatorial candidates Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore to Obama and by implication to Wright.

Orr's brush with Dr. King

Bob Orr filmed a speech by Martin Luther King in 1965.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate, then an 18-year-old stringer for WSOC-TV in Charlotte, used a 16mm handheld crank camera to film King at an appearance in Montreat on Aug. 21.

King was speaking at the Christian Action Conference at Anderson Auditorium.

The memory came back to Orr today when he was looking at photographs of the event on the Asheville Citizen-Times Web site.

In this photo, Orr is the "skinny young guy" with a camera in the front left, he tells Dome.

"It was a remarkable experience and I can remember my Dad, who went with me, and me talking about what an incredible speaker Dr. King was on the way home," he wrote.

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