FALSE: Sturtevant TV ad made misleading attribution to the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Glen Sturtevant is facing a tough challenge for his Senate seat from Ghazala Hashmi, who recently launched an effective new TV ad. To compete, Sturtevant needed some positive press to include in his own ad. One problem: he couldn't find any. Sturtevant resorted to including lines from a letter to the editor written by a former Republican member of the House of Delegates, which he falsely attributed to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This isn't the first time Sturtevant has run a false ad, and he clearly knows the truth won't help him in 2019. See below from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: 

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Sturtevant TV ad made misleading attribution to the Richmond Times-Dispatch

By Patrick Wilson

September 12, 2019

Two citations in an advertisement from Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, attributed statements to the Richmond Times-Dispatch that came from a letter written to the newspaper by a Sturtevant supporter in 2016.

The Sturtevant campaign on Thursday acknowledged the error and said the ad, which ran on cable TV in August and also online, has been pulled.

Under the words "Richmond Times-Dispatch," the ad used the text: "Leadership that Virginia so desperately needs in our modern era of rabid partisanship" and "Demonstrated uncommon political courage."

The ad gave the impression that those statements were made by the newspaper, but they were actually made in a February 2016 letter to the editor by Wyatt B. Durrette Jr.

Durrette, a lawyer, was a member of the House of Delegates from Fairfax County in the 1970s and lost campaigns as the Republican nominee for attorney general in 1981 and for governor in 1985. Read the full article here

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