Democrats, Republicans spend nearly $50 million on TV ads that repeat old, scary Medicare claims.
Midterm Medicare Mudslinging
Locations: Alaska
Alaska’s Pension Fight
The Alaska Senate candidates exaggerate the impact of a $500 million settlement that Republican Dan Sullivan reached as state attorney general in 2010.
The Rest of Alaska’s Crime Story
A controversial TV ad from Sen. Mark Begich accuses his opponent, former Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan, of letting “a lot of sex offenders get off with light sentences” — specifically one ex-con who prosecutors say killed an elderly couple and raped their infant granddaughter in 2013.
Twisting Begich’s Response to VA Scandal
Crossroads GPS misuses a quote from Sen. Mark Begich and conflates two separate management problems at the Veterans Administration to insinuate in a TV ad that Begich doesn’t take the current VA scandal seriously.
‘Outright Lies’ in Alaska?
In the Alaska Senate race, a radio ad from GOP frontrunner Dan Sullivan complains of “outright lies” in a TV ad from a super PAC supporting Democratic Sen. Mark Begich. The pro-Begich ad complains about the Koch brothers supporting Sullivan’s campaign.
AFP Distorts Begich’s Carbon Tax Stance
The conservative Americans for Prosperity claims Democratic Sen. Mark Begich “is on record supporting a carbon tax … that will cost the average family over $2,000 annually.” Not true.
Alaskan Island Giveaway?
Q: Is President Obama giving away several Alaskan islands to Russia?
A: No. The U.S. has never claimed ownership of the islands identified in viral emails and websites. They lie far closer to the coast of Siberia than to Alaska.
Biden on Hezbollah, and other late debate goodies
In today’s Washington Post, Michael Dobbs, a.k.a. The Fact Checker, writes about a few more stumbles from the debate, including a couple items that we didn’t have in our story on Friday.
Dobbs, a former diplomatic reporter, says Sen. Joe Biden was wrong when he said the U.S. and France “kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.” He was correct in saying that there was talk of sending NATO forces to the country in 2006.
More on Palin’s False Energy Claim
There’s more on Sarah Palin’s claim, made in her ABC News interview, that Alaska produces 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. As we noted in our original article, official statistics from the federal government show that Alaska produces only 3.5 percent of the total energy produced in the U.S., and 2.4 percent of the energy consumed.
McCain-Palin campaign officials said she meant to say that Alaska accounts for 20 percent of the nation’s oil and gas production,
Energetically Wrong. Still.
Last Friday, we wrote an article debunking Sarah Palin’s claim that Alaska “produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.” That’s false. The state’s share of U.S. energy production is actually 3.5 percent.
Palin has now changed her tune:
Palin (Sept. 15, Golden, Colorado): My job has been to oversee nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas.
That’s still bogus. As our colleague the Washington Post’s Fact Checker points out,