Wisconsin Republican claims campaign ad defamed him — and sues TV stations

Wisconsin Senate candidate Eric Hovde has filed a lawsuit against several local television stations for running an ad from a Democratic political action committee. He's sued all of them except one, the Fox outlet.

Hovde is irate over an ad from WinSenate PAC, which he claims defamed him, WTAQ-WLUK reported Tuesday.

The two accusations he claims are malicious lies are: “Hovde’s family rigged the system to rake in thirty million in government subsidies and loans." And Hovde is currently “sheltering his wealth in shady tax havens around the world."

Politico's Newsletter reported in March that during an unsuccessful Senate run in 2012, Hovde disclosed that he had assets of at least $50 million in insurance companies based in Bermuda, "benefitting from not having to pay U.S. corporate taxes," said Politico at the time. Hovde hasn't disclosed his financials yet, the Politico report said at the time.

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While the ads aired on WLUK-TV Fox 11, they are not named in the suit, only parent company Sinclair Broadcasting is mentioned "for allegations against WVTV-TV in Milwaukee," the WTAQ report said.

"The parent companies of other Green Bay stations are named: Gray Media for WBAY-TV, Nexstar for WFRV-TV, and Scripps Media for WGBA-TV and WACY-TV," the report said.

Hovde is taking on longtime U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). A poll by The Bullfinch Group that spoke to 500 registered voters taken between Aug 8-11 puts Baldwin at 50 percent and Hovde at 41 percent, FiveThirtyEight cites.

“The Stations had knowledge that the Advertisement contained defamatory statements which were made with actual malice, in that WinSenate either knew such statements were false, or acted with reckless disregard as to whether such statements were true or false,” Hovde’s lawsuit claims.

The PAC behind the ad, WinSenate told the network, “There is absolutely nothing false about the claims in this advertisement. The Campaign has no right to silence WinSenate. Your decision to accept the advertisement should remain undisturbed."

The liberal PAC American Bridge also sounded the alarm about "hedge funds that stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in the Cayman Islands."