The Montana Democratic Party asked television stations across the state Wednesday to pull an ad attacking Democratic attorney general candidate Steve Bullock because it contains false claims.

The ad, which began airing statewide Tuesday, was paid for by the Montana Republican Party and promotes its candidate, Helena lawyer Tim Fox, while criticizing Bullock.

Among other things, the ad claims that Bullock, also a Helena lawyer, is “against the death penalty.”

Bullock has been repeatedly quoted on the radio and in Montana newspapers as saying he supports the death penalty and would support it as attorney general.

In documentation supporting the ad, the GOP defends the ad by citing an interview Bullock gave with the blog, Left in the West. There, Bullock said several times that as attorney general he would support the law.

He also said that if anyone hurt his daughter he “would want to kill them, but I’m not sure the state should.” Elsewhere in the interview, Bullock said he would be neither surprised nor disappointed if the death penalty were overturned.

Bullock never directly said he was “against the death penalty.”

Bridger Pierce, a spokesman for the Montana Republican Party, said Bullock’s comments show he has “a personal and moral problem with the death penalty.”

“That’s what the ad is drawing the distinction of,” he said.

Fox, in contrast, has never added qualifying statements to his support of the death penalty, he said.

Chuck Denowh, a spokesman for Fox’s campaign, said that Fox not only would support the law as attorney general, but he personally supports the idea of capitol punishment.

“If there was a bill to repeal the death penalty before the Legislature, Fox would be there opposing it,” Denowh said and were Fox in the legislature he would “never vote to repeal it.”

Contacted Wednesday by Lee Newspapers, Bullock said he also didn’t have any personal or moral problem with the death penalty.

“I support it,” Bullock said, adding that he would not lobby the Legislature to overturn it.

The Republican Party countered that Bullock has changed his stance on the issue.

Monty Wallis, Montana group manager for Cordillera Communications, which owns CBS affiliate stations in Montana’s six largest cities, said he received the Democrats’ request Tuesday.

The stations requested documentation from both sides, he said, to support their claims.

“We just got the documentation in today,” Wallis said Wednesday. “We compare the documentation from both parties and try to make some kind of decision on whether or not the claims are factual.”

Wallis said the stations will make their decision “as quickly as we can.”

“We haven’t yet made a decision,” he said.

Bruce Cummings, general manager of the KULR-8 television station in Billings, an NBC affiliate, said he, too, had received the Democrats’ letter and was in the process of sorting out the claims.

Cummings said he has requested supporting documentation from the East Coast ad agency that placed the ad.

Typically, in such disputes, Cummings said, the station will evaluate the supporting material and, based on its own conclusions, potentially ask that the ad be changed or pulled.

The station has not yet made a decision in the matter, Cummings said.

Click here to read a transcript of the Left in the West interview with Steve Bullock.