Democratic candidate for the 8th congressional district Kevin Strouse’s campaign made a claim Tuesday that primary opponent Shaughnessy Naughton “personally profits from fracking in the Marcellus Shale.”
The statement comes the day after Naughton spoke about Strouse and his alleged connection to companies involved in fracking. Earlier that day, LevittownNow.com was first to break news that Naughton’s newest video advertisement tackled the subject.
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“Kevin Strouse has taken thousands from the gas industry and backs (Governor) Corbett’s Drilling plan threatening our water,” the voiceover in the 30-second spot says.
The Strouse campaign on Tuesday afternoon noted that Naughton has accepted $2,020 from the President of Tyndale Corporation and $1,000 from an Associate General Counsel for Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
Tyndale Corporation is based in Pipersville and manufactures “worker safety apparel” for several industries including gas, utilities, rail and chemical manufacturing. Occidental Petroleum Corporation is an international oil and gas exploration and production company that is based in California.
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“In addition to taking campaign sizeable amounts of campaign cash from the fracking industry, Naughton personally profits from fracking currently underway in Pennsylvania. Naughton owns shares in the following companies: Continental Resources, EOG Resources, Anterro Resources, and Chesapeake Energy,” a press release from the Strouse campaign said.
Josh Morrow, Naughton’s campaign manager, said the candidate “does not own a single share in any of these companies.” He said her money is invested in mutual funds.
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According to Investopedia.com, here’s the definition of a mutual fund:
An investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets. Mutual funds are operated by money managers, who invest the fund’s capital and attempt to produce capital gains and income for the fund’s investors. A mutual fund’s portfolio is structured and maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus.
“The Strouse campaign is clearly in freefall and they’re slinging accusations designed to confuse people, so let’s be very clear,” Morrow said. “Kevin does not support a permanent ban on fracking in the Delaware River Basin, and he’s accepted thousands of dollars from executives in the fracking industry. Everything else is just a desperate effort by the Strouse campaign to mislead voters.”
The Strouse campaign released the following statement:
“It’s unfortunate that our opponent is so desperate that she needs to lie about Kevin’s record, and while doing so, expose herself as a hypocrite. These latest distortions represent a clear trend of Ms. Naughton lying about, or exaggerating her own record. She claims to run a local business, when she actually exports the work to a company in Georgia that brags about using nonunion labor. She goes around telling people she is a scientist when she only worked in the field for three years, over a decade ago, and never earned a Ph.D. Voters don’t want another hypocrite in Congress, when they already have Congressman Fitzpatrick.”
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Strouse was an early front-runner in the campaign but Naughton has closed the gap in recent weeks, according to multiple sources.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face-off with incumbent Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, who is running unopposed in the primnary and has more funds available then both the Democratic candidates combined as of the last Federal Election Commission reporting for the first quarter on record.The race is bound to get even more interesting as the primary campaign enters its final days.
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Publisher/Editor Jeff Bohen contributed to this report.
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