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REALITY CHECK: Markey ad attacking Musgrave contains both truth, distortion

Raj Chohan, CBS4

Published September 30, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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There's a tough new ad by Democrat Betsy Markey attacking Republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave in the 4th Congressional District race.

Ad: They say the only things you can count on are death and taxes and Marilyn Musgrave's lies.

The claim is, of course, a statement of the Markey campaign's opinion.

Ad: A news outlet says she has no evidence for her highly misleading charges.

The claim is true.

The statement refers to a previous Reality Check segment that focused on an attack ad by the Musgrave campaign.

It had to do with a claim against Markey that implied she used her position as a staffer for Sen. Ken Salazar to funnel contracts to her family business.

As I've reported before, there is no evidence to support that allegation.

I spoke with general counsel for the Senate Ethics Committee, who told me that Markey's ownership interest in her family's company, even while she worked for Salazar, was likely not a conflict of interest because there is no indication that she used her position to help the company win government contracts.

Markey divested her interest in the business to her husband 10 months after she started working for Salazar.

Her campaign allowed me to review transactional documents verifying the transfer.

I also spoke with the company's attorney, who corroborated the date of the transaction.

Ad: Musgrave voted to let lobbyists wine and dine her.

The claim is false.

The votes cited in the ad were procedural votes involving legislative maneuvering.

They were not votes on the merits of lobbying reform.

In fact, when the lobbying reform bill did come up for a vote on the merits, Marilyn Musgrave voted in favor of it.

That is, she voted with Democrats to ban lobbyists from wining and dining members of Congress.

Ad: And Musgrave took $14,000 in pay raises.

The claim is true.

The automatic cost-of-living adjustment to congressional pay boosted her paycheck over a series of years from $154,700 when she first joined Congress in 2003 to $169,600 today. It is the same automatic pay increase all members of Congress receive.

Ad: Musgrave sponsored a bill to save her family thousands.

Here's the spin.

Musgrave co-sponsored a capital gains tax cut for certain types of precious metal coins.

At the time, her husband owned precious metals, some of which would have qualified for the tax cut if it had become law.

The tax cut would have affected a relatively small group of people compared with those affected by broader tax cut measures.

However, the Musgrave campaign correctly points out that she has voted for other tax cuts that have affected millions of Americans.

Ad: No wonder she was named one of the most corrupt in Congress.

This claim is highly misleading. As I've reported in a previous Reality Check, its conclusions are unsupported by the evidence.

Bottom line: Both candidates in this race are running commercials that have stretched the truth beyond recognition. This ad is no exception.

Contact Raj Chohan at rchohan@CBS.com