Wisconsin Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde has filed a lawsuit against several television stations and a Democratic Party-affiliated PAC in the state for running ads that he says defame him.
The complaint says Hovde, CEO and chairman of Sunwest Bank, and his family “rigged the system to collect $30 million in government subsidies and loans, and now he is hiding his wealth in shady tax havens around the world.” At one point, it also claims Hovde is a “California banker.”
The ad was removed by WinSenate PAC, which is one of the defendants named in the lawsuit, along with Gray Media Group, Nexstar Media, Inc., The Evening Telegram Company, Sinclair Communications, LLC, Fox Television Stations, LLC, ION Media Networks, Inc. and Scripps Media, Inc., according to an Aug. 9 complaint.
A letter obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio shows that Hovde’s lawyers sent letters to the defendants on June 14 demanding that they “immediately remove this false advertising from your network in accordance with your obligations and duties as an FCC licensee.”
“The ad begins with the false claim that Mr. Hovde is a ‘California banker.’ This is not true,” the letter continued. Hovde’s Sunwest Bank is a subsidiary of Irvine, California-based H Bancorp, although he resides in Madison, Wisconsin, according to the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal.
Hovde’s lawyers also objected to the claim that Hovde is “now hiding his wealth in shady tax havens around the world.” In the letter, they wrote that the claim was “both false and defamatory, as it accuses Mr. Hovde of tax evasion without any evidence to support the allegations made.”
“We ask that you comply with the legal requirements for your station and refuse to continue broadcasting the ‘WinSenate’ advertisement on the grounds that it contains false and misleading claims. All future broadcasts would be made in reckless disregard of the falseness of the advertisement,” the letter concludes.
WinSenate’s lawyers sent a follow-up letter on June 17, stating, “The allegations in this ad are absolutely not false. The campaign has no right to silence WinSenate. Your decision to accept the ad should remain unaffected.”
Erin Chlopak, senior director of campaign finance at the Campaign Legal Center, told WPR that Hovde’s lawsuit has little merit because “false statements in campaign ads are generally protected” due to Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus 2014.
Representatives for the Hovde campaign and WinSenate did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment at the time of publication.
