Controversial Begich ad mistakenly aired in Alaska

by Ben Kamisar - 10/23/14 5:37 PM ET

A controversial ad from Sen. March Begich (D-Alaska) that linked his opponent to an alleged murderer and sex offender mistakenly appeared on Alaska television Thursday morning after a station inadvertently ran the ad more than a month after the campaign pulled it from the airwaves.

KTVA 11 News in Anchorage tweeted Thursday that it had accidentally aired the commercial and that the Begich campaign had not ordered it to air.

According to the Begich campaign, the station operator accidentally loaded that political ad into the slot instead of an approved Begich commercial. In response, the station deleted the controversial commercial from its computers to avoid any similar mistake in the future.

{mosads}The ad shows a retired Anchorage police sergeant accusing Republican Senate challenger Dan Sullivan of approving “light sentences” for sex offenders when he served as the state’s attorney general.

“One of them got out of prison and is now charged with breaking into that apartment building, murdering a senior couple and sexually assaulting their 2-year-old granddaughter,” retired Anchorage police Sgt. Bob Glen says, implying a link between Sullivan’s sentencing and the alleged crime.

The Sullivan campaign, along with GOP groups, media outlets and the victims’ family immediately panned the advertisement and called for Begich to pull the ad.

After Sullivan put up an ad responding to the charges, the victims’ family asked both campaigns to pull their ads and the two campaigns agreed. Begich’s hasn’t appeared on the air since until the mistake this morning.