Crossroads GPS pulls ad attacking Heitkamp after campaign questions content

Conservative super-PAC Crossroads GPS has pulled an ad it launched just the day before that attacks North Dakota Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp on her spending record as state attorney general.

The ad accuses Heidi of spending taxpayer dollars on private planes. But the Heitkamp campaign released a fact-check questioning the veracity of the ad and a letter to the station airing the ad asking the station to remove it from rotation. According to the Heitkamp campaign, the planes were given by the federal government to North Dakota free of charge, and were not private, but rather used to do surveillance on drug dealers.

Shortly after, a Crossroads GPS spokesman confirmed that the ad had been voluntarily removed from rotation due to a "content issue," but that the super-PAC had not seen the letter and had not received any notice from North Dakota stations concerning the ad.

Crossroads GPS had planned a $91,000 expenditure to run the ad through the middle of next week across North Dakota in a competitive race, where Heitkamp leads opponent Rep. Rick Berg (R-N.D.) in the most recent poll.

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