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.

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The Perdue campaign says it sent a letter complaining about the last ad Sept. 18. The complaint cited the ad's reliance on outmoded information from The Tax Foundation to claim that North Carolina has the country's "largest-growing" tax burden.

Sinclair informed the Perdue campaign Wednesday that it had pulled the RGA ad.

"It's ironic that the RGA ad — which has been welcomed with open arms by Pat McCrory — is being pulled at the same time Pat is running ads claiming to run a positive campaign," Perdue spokesman Tim Crowley said in a news release.

TV stations are not obligated to run ads from independent groups such as the RGA, unlike ads from actual candidates. The two general managers said Sinclair followed company policy in giving the RGA a chance to provide documentation for the original ad.

The company then makes "a decision whether that documentation warrants that spot being on the air," Conners said.