Local candidate airs attack ad from 4 years ago
Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:52 am
Source (contains nothing additional)Wrong ad has Black attack ’04 foe
SUMNER COUNTY
In the waning days of a political race, it wasn't unusual for Sen. Diane Black, a Gallatin Republican, to roll out a TV attack ad Wednesday night in her campaign to keep her seat in the state legislature.
What was unusual was that the attack ad targeted her opponent in 2004, Jo Ann Graves.
Graves, now mayor of Gallatin, has nothing to do with the current contest between Black and Democratic Jim Hawkins.
The Graves ad, produced by a Virginia media consulting company called OnMessage, ran at least twice — once on two different stations — before word reached Black, who quickly told stations to pull the ads.
The company that digitally transmits the campaign spots, called DGFastChannel, sent the wrong ad to the stations because the coding on the old ad was almost identical to that of a new one aimed at Hawkins. The new ad began airing Thursday.
Black called Graves Thursday afternoon to explain what happened and express her regret.
— THEO EMERY
temery@tennessean.com