Update: Communications Director of NCGOP, Brent Woodcox, emailed Townhall to say the Reuters story listed below is not true. "We are not pulling the ad," Woodcox said.

North Carolina’s Republican Party has decided to pull a television advertisement linking Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama to his longtime friend and pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Reuters reports.

The spot called Obama “just too extreme for North Carolina.” Click here to watch it.

Critics said the ad, which also discusses Obama voting record on crime, was possibly racist and Republican presidential candidate John McCain called on the North Carolina Republicans to quit airing the spot repeatedly.

At a campaign stop in New Orleans McCain said: “I cannot in my role dictate to the North Carolina Republican Party what their message is but I can condemn it I can appeal to the overwhelming majority of Republicans in North Carolina who also repudiate that kind of activity and I am calling on them to repudiate the people the small handful of people that have refused to understand that we are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and that party–that Republican Party–there is no room for this kind of activity.”

North Carolina Republican leaders defied McCain by defending the spot.

“This ad presents a question of patriotism and judgment. It is entirely appropriate for voters to evaluate candidates based on their past associations,” said Chairwoman Linda Daves after McCain disowned the ad. She said the ad was not meant to attack Obama outright, but to question other persons who had endorsed Obama.

The ad was scheduled to being airing next week in the run-up to North Carolina’s May 6 primary, but was put on the internet and replayed by major television news outlets.

It is still available on the internet for viewing.