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W.Va. Senate Candidate From Brooke County Denies Political Ad Claim

WEIRTON — A local candidate for state Senate is speaking out against radio advertisements, which he said are trying to connect him to a Jackson County, W.Va., sexual assault case.

On Tuesday, Ryan Weld, a Republican candidate for Senate who currently represents the Second District in the House of Delegates, said radio ads paid for by West Virginia Family Values cross the line and are misleading to voters.

“This disgusting and completely untrue ad insinuates that I testified in court on behalf of a convicted child molester,” Weld said in the offices of Weirton law firm Frankovitch, Anetakis, Colantonio and Simon. “I have never, ever done such a thing. I’ve never even testified in court, ever. Actually, I’m a prosecuting attorney, and I’m in the business of putting child molesters behind bars.”

In response, Weld is sending cease-and-desist letters to West Virginia Family Values, as well as the Katz Media Group, and all radio stations airing the advertisement. Katz Media Group, a firm based in New York, represents more than 4,000 radio stations and 800 television stations in America.

“They are only attacking Republican candidates in West Virginia,” Weld said, explaining he feels West Virginia Family Values, and not any Democratic candidate, has been behind the attacks.

Weld noted the organization has run previous ads against him, with one discussing mine safety regulations, which he said were passed with bipartisan support. Another ad focuses on charter school legislation, which Weld said he had not voted on.

Over the weekend Weld posted the following statement on Facebook, “In the past several months, a group called ‘West Virginia Family Values’ has been trying desperately to buy the race against me. The group is entirely funded by millionaire personal injury lawyers and labor bosses with an agenda to drag our state back to where they ruled with an iron fist.  So far they have spent $23,778.03 alone in negative, untrue radio and Facebook ads against me, and are also paying people who are not from this area $13 an hour to go door-to-door and speak against me.

“It’s sad that all they can do is try to drag someone down with false negatives because they don’t have anything to speak about positively from their own side.”

Attorney Eric Frankovitch said the cease-and-desist letters were sent out Tuesday, and they will await a response from West Virginia Family Values and the Katz Media Group.

“If they continue to run the ads, we’ll take action,” Frankovitch said.

The organization aired similar advertisements in the spring focused on West Virginia Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael. According to published reports, Carmichael had testified in July 2013 at a sentencing hearing for Cecil Hinzman, of Sandyville, who had plead guilty three months earlier to three counts of sexual abuse.

Several social media posts by West Virginia Family Values are focused on Carmichael, questioning whether other Republican candidates will support him.

“Every candidate running for State Senate with Mitch Carmichael needs to answer a very simple question: Are they with or against Mitch Carmichael, the Republican Senate Leader who testified on behalf of a convicted sexual predator and called that convicted criminal, quote unquote, trustworthy? Do they denounce him or not? Stop hiding and just answer the question,” states a post on Tuesday from the group on Facebook.

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