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Three TV stations around the state have pulled an ad knocking former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold over the over-prescription scandal at the Tomah VA Medical Center, according to lawyers for Feingold's campaign.

The ad by the Freedom Partners Action Fund, a group backing U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and funded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, focuses on a 2009 memo about problems at the Tomah facility. Feingold and the author of the memo contend Feingold didn't receive it at that time.

Johnson unseated Feingold in 2010, and the two are facing off again this fall. Johnson is a Republican, and Feingold a Democrat.

Jonathan Berkon and David Lazarus of the Perkins Coie law firm, which represents Feingold's campaign, sent a two-page letter on Wednesday to TV stations around the state challenging the accuracy of the ad. Their letter called the commercial "false, misleading and deceptive."

"For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station must immediately cease airing this advertisement," Berkon and Lazarus wrote.

In response, the lawyers said, three stations -- WMSN-TV in Madison and WLUK-TV and WGBA-TV in Green Bay -- have agreed to stop running the TV spot. Freedom Partners has said it is spending $2 million on the ad buy. The commercial is not running in the Milwaukee market.

Officials at Freedom Partners did not respond to an email about the TV spot. The group's phone number is not in service.

The commercial features Tomah whistleblower Ryan Honl discussing falsified records and other problems at the clinic.

Inspectors in 2014 found doctors at the Tomah medical center were prescribing high amounts of opiate pain pills to patients. The deaths of three people who were treated there are under investigation.

In the ad, Honl says Feingold received a copy of a 2009 memo detailing problems at the Tomah hospital -- a claim Feingold denies.

"Russ Feingold ignored veterans' concerns, while veterans were dying at the facility," says Honl, who has endorsed Johnson. Here is the ad:

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Feingold's campaign responded on Thursday with an ad criticizing Johnson's office for failing to act on Honl's 2014 complaint on the same issue.

The ad highlights a radio interview in which Johnson said his office may have taken action “had this not occurred during an election cycle, when there’s an awful lot of turnover . . . when people are looking at doing job interviews and stuff.”

Johnson said he first learned of the problems in January 2015, when news reports highlighted those issues and an Inspector General's report on the hospital.

Last year, Honl said "all three offices have egg on their face" over the Tomah clinic, referring to Johnson, Feingold and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Here is Feingold's ad: