II. Bennett Condemns Dent's TV "Smear Tactics"

LV congressional challenger Sam Bennett is quite upset with incumbent Charlie Dent's TV ads, which began Monday. She's circulating a short, but but pointed, news release.

ALLENTOWN – Today, Democratic congressional candidate Sam Bennett called out her Republican opponent, Charles Dent, for his smear campaign, which hit the airwaves this week.

“At the beginning of this campaign, I challenged Republican Congressman Charles Dent to a clean campaign pledge and he refused. Now, we know why. Yesterday, my opponent launched multiple negative, dishonest, and personal attack ads against me. Charles Dent has, once again, stooped to the same old George Bush-Karl Rove smear tactics of the past,” says Sam Bennett. “So I am calling on Congressman Dent to accept our clean campaign pledge, debate the issues, and pull down the negative, dishonest, personal attack ads immediately."

As wages fall and companies cut jobs in Lehigh Valley, Dent takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from mega wealthy executives, Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Washington Lobbyists. Now, he's using these contributions to run a smear campaign ad, saying that helping communities is “money wasted.”

Bennett adds, “If you’re listening Congressman, sorry Charlie! You can run on your rhetoric, but you can’t hide from your record.”

“Dent makes three times the income of the average voter, while he opposes fully raising the minimum wage. And he takes taxpayer-funded health care, while he opposes expanding health care for kids, veterans, reservists, and our National Guard,” says Bennett. “To change the way Washington works, we’ll have to change the people that work in Washington.”

Charlie Dent dismisses Bennett's complaint.

“Sam Bennett has no grounds for complaint about our ad detailing her blatant misuse of taxpayer money. Our ad is fact-based, unlike the attacks she has made in this campaign. The voters are going to hold her accountable for ripping them off by paying herself an exorbitant salary arranged for her by her political cronies in Harrisburg. The Morning Call reported on Bennett’s giant grab of our tax dollars and said ‘it raises questions about her decision-making.’ I agree with that assessment and so do the people of the Lehigh Valley.”

Dent's campaign guru, Shawn Millan, adds this thought.

Sam’s press release is wrong. We’re not saying that money spent helping communities is “money wasted.” We’re saying that money meant to be spent helping communities but that ends up in Sam’s pocket is “wasted.”

Update: Pa. Progressive, which claims that "Bennett has Dent running scared," has a video of Sam Bennett's press conference.
Update #2: The Morning Call's Bill White asked Bennett this question. "Why do you feel his campaign is any more negative than yours? I'm trying to distnguish what he's doing that you're not doing." She really had no answer.
Update #3: Bill White's blog about the news conferences mentions that, aside from a Channel 69 cameraman, he was the only reporter in the room. In fact, and I suspected this, the first questions is posed by Dem Bossman Joe Long.