The Fair Elections Practices Committee has determined that a TV ad that tied Republican House candidate Maggie Brooks to a host of Monroe County corruption scandals is “inaccurate and overstated.”

The committee, which released its findings late this afternoon, had very little nice to say at the spot, which was released in September and was immediately met with a complaint from the Brooks camp.

The Slaughter ad claimed that Brooks’ tenure as county executive — she is in her third term — has cost taxpayers $423 million thanks to her “record of scandal.”

But many of those projects and spending took place and were in the works before Brooks took office, the committee says in its findings. The committee’s report called the $423 million figure “erroneous.”

Brooks, naturally, feels vindicated, and called on Slaughter to pull the ad off the air.

“In light of today’s ruling, I am officially calling on Mrs. Slaughter to pull her baseless and desperate attack from the airwaves. Failing to do so would only highlight a blatant lack of respect for local voters and run contrary to the high standards we both agreed to by signing the Fair Election Pledge.”

Update: The Slaughter campaign responds saying it’s disappointed in the findings, but remains unbowed.

“We are disappointed that the FEPC sided with Maggie Brooks’ assertion that only tens of millions of dollars should be cited as the cost of her corruption,” said spokesman Eric Walker. “We continue to stand by our claim that when a group of insiders obtains a contract through a corrupt process, the entire contract is corrupt. Whether you estimate the cost of Brooks’ corruption in the tens of millions of dollars or the hundreds of millions of dollars, the fact remains that taxpayers are footing the bill for her scandals, while Brooks still refuses to take responsibility.”

Brooks v Slaughter

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