Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde (Photo courtesy Hovde campaign)
(WTAQ-WLUK) – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde filed a lawsuit against several television stations in the state, seeking defamation damages for an ad placed by a Democratic political action group.
Hovde is expected to face U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, in the November election.
The suit was filed Friday in Brown County against multiple television stations across the state and their owners. WLUK-TV FOX 11 is not named as one of the defendants, but its parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, is for allegations against WVTV-TV in Milwaukee. The parent companies of other Green Bay stations are named: Gray Media for WBAY-TV, Nextsar for WFRV-TV, and Scripps Media for WGBA-TV and WACY-TV.
Hovde claims the ad placed by WinSenate PAC contains two defamatory statements:
The Advertisement says that “Hovde’s family rigged the system to rake in thirty million in government subsidies and loans.
The Advertisement further claimed Hovde is currently “sheltering his wealth in shady tax havens around the world.
Hovde’s campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to the stations, requesting the ads be removed.
“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 suit states.
The lawsuit filings also contain WinSenate’s response to the stations, outlining the facts it believes supports the claims made in the ad.
“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,” WinSenate said.
The lawsuit asks for punitive damages from the stations.
As of Tuesday morning, none of the stations had filed formal responses in court, and no hearings were scheduled.
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