On Monday, reporters from various news organizations received word from Josh Morrow, campaign manager for congressional democratic candidate Shaughnessy Naughton, that the campaign was doing an ad buy in the Philadelphia television market.
The Naughton campaign had up until that point relied on e-mail blasts and mailers to reach potential voters daily. They had also released a video ad on YouTube.com.
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Morrow sent the link of the campaign video to LevittownNow.com early Monday morning and said the ad was “embargoed” and would let the publication know it could be released for public viewing “later” in the day.
Asked on Monday how many spots were purchased and on what stations, Morrow said, “we don’t discuss internal campaign decisions.” However, he did say the “ad will run later in the week,” as part of the ad buy in the Philadelphia market.
A check with three sources in the broadcast industry working at local broadcast stations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday tell the real story.
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Each source said there was never any buy for air time by the Naughton campaign at their broadcast stations. It could not be confirmed if the ad ran on cable or other stations, but, so far, it has not been spotted by LevittownNow.com staff and several Lower Bucks County residents that were asked.
The ad appears to have never ran and may not with primary day only hours away.
A campaign low on funds will often become creative in order to get their message out to voters. Creativity is a good thing. But as one elected official said last week, “that right there is an old Washington D.C. trick.”
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Morrow was outraged Monday night by comments made by opponent Kevin Strouse’s spokesperson, Brendan McPhillips. The comments were published in a story by LevittownNow.com, which alleged Naughton’s campaign lives in a world of fantasy, among other things.
“Once again, we see a whole lot of pledging followed up by a whole lot of nothing. the ad isn’t on TV, and no time has been purchased. It’s a fantasy ad being delivered by a campaign that pretends fantasy is fact. Ms. Naughton has been doing that the whole campaign. She claims to run her own business, but she outsources all her work to a Georgia company that uses nonunion labor. She claims to live in Bucks County, but she actually sits on the condominium board of the Philadelphia apartment that she owns and voted in Philadelphia as recently as 2012. She claims to be a scientist who pioneered a new cancer treatment, but only worked in science for three years and doesn’t have a PhD,” he said.
Morrow contacted the publication shortly after the above comments were posted as part of the ad buy story. He was upset about the comments and at first demanded they be pulled from the story. He accused McPhillips of “lying” and as a responsible media source we should not let those comments stand.
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The Strouse campaign to this day stands by what was said and additionally late Saturday night commented further about the lack of Naughton campaign ads running on television.
“This was nothing more than a desperate effort by a failing campaign, representing a culture of dishonesty and deception that is commonplace within the Naughton camp, as can be seen by Naughton exaggerating her business background when all this time she has been outsourcing her work to a firm in Georgia that brags about using nonunion labor. Thankfully voters are excited by Kevin Strouse, whose service to his country in the Army Rangers and commitment to improving education and opportunity for families here in Bucks County makes him the strongest candidate to take on Congressman Fitzpatrick and win,” said McPhillips.
The democratic primary race has been tight in recent weeks. With multiple political sources telling LevittownNow.com last week that Naughton had a slight lead on Strouse in one poll. Strouse’s campaign has also been overshadowed by news coverage on donations to his campaign.
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Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick awaits the winner of Tuesday’s primary.
Attempts to reach Morrow for comment by this publication were unsuccessful.
