News-Record.com

Back in July, I wrote about AG candidate Bob Crumley, a Republican from the Greensboro area, and his television commercials. What he described as an image ad struck me very much like a campaign commercial, a fact that Crumley disputed at the time.

Prior posts here and here. The ad itself:

After I wrote about the ad, the state Democratic Party filed a complaint about it.

Separately, Crumley and his law firm had asked the state board of elections another set of questions about law firm advertising. Primarily, they wanted to know whether a guy who owns a law firm can continue to appear in his law firms commercials in a 60-day window before the election, which is handled differently under election law.

As it turns out, whether you think the image ad is legit law firm solicitation or not, the answer to this second question is "no." That's according to the state board of elections.

Click here for today's story.

For background: This notice ran in the North Carolina Register on Sept. 15. And click here for more correspondence between the campaign and the SBOE.

Crumley contends that the SBOE ruling is wrong-headed but said he's not going to fight it so he can pursue his campaign and says he'll take it up after the election. He told me last week that it has cost him $10,000 to pull his image and name from the law firm's ads.

I'm told that there are legislative candidates, including at least one Democratic legislator, who this ruling may end up affecting.