Norht Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy, who is facing a challenge from Republican Duane Sand this election season, is running ads attacking Sand for running for office too often and distorting his record on domestic oil drilling (you can hear Sand’s previous ad about Pomeroy’s drilling record here).

Here’s a rough transcript of the ad Pomeroy is running (it’s not currently available on his campaign website):

Every four years we see it:  the competition, the back & forth drama. No, not the Olympics.  It’s Duane Sand in North Dakota, running for political office and twisting the truth.

The ad goes on to suggest that Pomeroy has voted for domestic drilling 15 times.  That’s surprising, because after a rather extensive search of Pomeroy’s voting record by myself I can’t seem to find evidence of those votes.  What I do find are several votes to restrict the oil industry’s ability to produce more oil domestically, up to and including Pomeroy’s very latest vote to recess the House of Representatives for several weeks rather than stay in session to debate a domestic drilling bill.

If Earl really wants us to believe that he’s in favor of domestic drilling, and that he thinks it’s a serious issue, why did he vote to convene the House instead of debating a bill to allow domestic drilling?

It seems as though Earl Pomeroy, and not Duane Sand, is the one distorting things here.