• Associated Press via Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 23, 2006 11:30 AM

Both candidates in a congressional race have declaimed a TV spot sponsored by the National Republican Congressional Committee that accuses the Democrat of billing taxpayers for a call to a phone-sex line. The ad, which started running Friday, shows Michael Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says: "Hi, sexy. You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line."

But Arcuri's campaign says an associate mistakenly dialed the line from Arcuri's New York City hotel room, and notes that the number shares the last seven digits of the state Department of Criminal Justice Services, which was dialed right after the first call was made. Arcuri, the district attorney in Oneida County, New York, says the ad is libelous and threatens to file a lawsuit--while his GOP opponent, state Sen. Ray Meier, describes it as "way over the line."

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