BOISE -- A collection of new political ads have recently been aired, and the KTVB is going through one by one fact checking all the claims made in the ads.
The latest one; an attack ad from the Brad Little campaign aimed at Boise businessman, Dr. Tommy Ahlquist.
In a change from previous ads, the Little campaign did not cite their source for any of the claims made in the ad.
KTVB asked the Little campaign why. The campaign says at this point in the race, the claims they are making are accepted facts, and facts don't need citation.
So, we are now verifying the Little campaign's, said facts.
The first claim in the ad says, "When Obama and Pelosi were trying to grab our guns, Ahlquist was one of the Democrats top donors in Idaho."
While it's true Ahlquist donated to Democrats in Idaho while President Obama and Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi pushed for gun control, the two claims are not really related.
Of note, Ahlquist says he is a strong gun supporter. He also only donated to local Democrats in state races.
Again, There is no citation on this claim, so we reached out to the Little campaign for clarification on what their time frame was when they claim Ahlquist was a top Democrat donor in Idaho.
The Little campaign says the claim is meant as a general, non-specific time frame during the time that Barack Obama was president and Nancy Pelosi was in Congress, so basically 2009 to 2017.
Here's the reality -- Ahlquist gave no money to Democrats until 2014.
From 2014 until 2016, Ahlquist donated a legal maximum of $1,000 to Boise Mayor Dave Bieter, a Democrat, and two Democratic Boise City Council members.
During the 2014 governor's race, Ahlquist also gave a maximum legal donation of $5,000 to Democrat AJ Balukoff, but he also donated to and ended up voting for Republican candidate, Gov. Butch Otter.
In total since the early 2000s, Ahlquist has given $8,000 to Democrats and close to $25,000 to Republicans.
The second claim on the ad says, "Tommy Ahlquist is so liberal he wouldn't even vote for Donald Trump over Hillary."
The ad claims Tommy Ahlquist is liberal, but in the 2016 presidential election, Ahlquist didn't vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Instead, he did vote for a different Republican.
Ahlquist said in a 2017 radio interview with Nate Shelman that he "wrote in Marco Rubio in the last presidential election."
Claim number three in the ad says, "Now Ahlquist wants to be Governor. His plan? Raise taxes on everything from farm equipment to haircuts."
The claim again is not cited in the ad but the Little campaign tells KTVB that they're referencing a 2017 radio interview.
In that interview (the same interview with Nate Shelman) Ahlquist never says that he wants to raise taxes on farm equipment, haircuts, or anything for that matter. Instead, he mentions lowering tax rates and getting rid of tax exemptions.
During the interview, Ahlquist said, "Our taxes are too high, Nate. If you look at how we compare to the seven surrounding states, we're the highest in taxes and our achievements low in almost everything. We have got to find a way to lower our taxes in the state to become more competitive."
Ahlquist continued the thought on lowering taxes later in the interview saying, "It is flattening it. It is getting rid of a lot of the exemptions that exist out there. If you pull up the tax code and look at all the exemptions that are there, I think we flatten the tax and broaden the base through getting rid of exemptions."
So we can verify, that no, Ahlquist doesn't want to raise taxes on farm equipment and haircuts. The ad technically is wrong, there is a difference between raising taxes and getting rid of some tax exemptions.
We reached out to the Ahlquist campaign for reaction to the ad, and campaign manager David Johnston emailed us the following statement:
"Unable to defend his 17-year political record of fighting for higher taxes, Brad Little's desperate and fading campaign is doubling down on debunked false negative attacks on conservative Republican outsider Tommy Ahlquist. While Brad represents the status quo, Tommy Ahlquist is focused on the future of Idaho and has a conservative blueprint to build an even better Idaho that includes lowering taxes."