Updated: Tuesday, 8:10 p.m.
LevittowonNow.com was told Tuesday afternoon where exactly Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (R- PA 8 ) would be that evening.
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Fitzpatrick is the vice chair of the House Financial Services subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation and will be reporting his findings from his trip to Middle East to the committee, as well as Treasury Department officials, spokesperson Aaron Clark said. Fitzpatrick took a week-long diplomatic mission to the Middle East and returned Tuesday.
Original Story:
Last week, a controversy of sorts was put forth by the Kevin Strouse for Congress campaign.
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Strouse, a Democrat running for the seat now occupied by Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, made the claim emails exchanged earlier in the campaign prove the Fitzpatrick camp is lying about being invited to a NAACP open candidates forum scheduled for Tuesday night in Trevose.
Not so fast, said Sam Bolstiein, coordinator of the congressman’s reelection effort.
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Bolstien told LevittownNow.com: “After discussing with the traditional hosts throughout the district earlier this summer, our campaign sent a letter in July 2014 to our opponent’s campaign outlining the debates. (letter is attached) .No Strouse campaign representative brought forth additional debates at that time. We moved forward to confirm the debates to ensure that voters will hear a discussion of the issues.”
The crux of the controversy has been brewing behind the scenes for some time now, as Democrats in know told LevittownNow.com earlier this summer about the invitation to the NAACP sponsored event for both men.
The Fitzpatrick campaign has said repeatedly, there are traditionally three debates that take place for the PA- 8 seat in congress and that’s what they had planned to stick with.
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The Strouse campaign contended and still does that these are not all the facts.
A recent open forum held in Bensalem was, according to sources on both sides, scheduled at the last minute. Both Fitzpatrick and Strouse attended that event.
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In a Strouse campaign release last week to the media, email exchanges between Bolstien and the Strouse campaign about debates and open forums is where the alleged smoking gun lies according to the Strouse campaign.
The Strouse campaign released vignettes from the string of emails covering August 13 to September 21.
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“Fitzpatrick’s campaign lied to the press about the Congressman’s reason for declining an open forum hosted by the Lin-Park Civic Association and Bucks County NAACP. Fitzpatrick’s Campaign Coordinator was quoted as saying that they received ‘too little notice’ to accept the invitation, yet email correspondence from the event organizers dated over six weeks ago prove otherwise. Additionally, the campaign gave no explanation for where Congressman Fitzpatrick will actually be on Tuesday evening” the release said.
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Bolstien said his letters to the Srouse campaign prove. “To our knowledge, Mike is the only Congressman in Pennsylvania who is participating in three debates focused on the issues, which were finalized long before other organizations approached our campaign later in the year.Per their request, earlier this week, I personally reached out to the Lin-Park Civic Association to see if we can find a time that works for both the Congressman and their organization to meet.”
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Strouse last week released a new campaign ad, his second during the cycle. The ad, titled “Bothers Me” attacks the Fitzpatrick for being an “entrenched politician” who caters to special interests like big oil.” The ad further attempts to connect Fitzpatrick to fellow Republican Governor Tom Corbett on issues of drilling and votes to deny woman access to birth control and breast cancer screenings.
Fitzpatrick has yet to hit the broadcast spectrum with his own ad and is still holding onto a war chest with about $1.7 million dollars to use. An ad, however, in support of Fitzpatrick was released earlier this month from the Americans for Responsible Solutions The Political Action Committee that put out the ad is headed by former Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011. The ad simple titled“Leader” came as a shock for a number of local Democrats. The ad hails Fitzpatrick’s leadership on gun control, citing his stance as a common sense one on the controversial issue.
“We’re disappointed that Americans for Responsible Solutions would reward Congressman Fitzpatrick for his empty words and meaningless actions on such an important issue,” Brendan McPhillips, Strouse’s campaign manager, told LevittownNow.com after the ad started airing on TV in mid-September.
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Attempts to confirm a Fitzpatrick ad buy as of press time have been met with indirect responses from the campaign. Additionally, attempts to confirm where the congressman will be Tuesday night while the candidates is taking place have gone unanswered as of press time.
Strouse will be at the Tuesday forum, which starts at 7 p.m. at the Linconia Tabernacle Christian Center, 2460 Paris Avenue, Trevose.
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While Strouse continues to throw punches about Fitzpatrick’s role in shutting down the government, his inaccessibility to constituents and being owned by big business Fitzpatrick still leads in the race according to the Cook Report among others.
With 29 days left until Election Day, both sides will be heard from publicly at the three agreed upon debates between the two men this month. And then voters pf the 8th district will decide.
The three debates:
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October 15 on WNPV radio with Darryl Berger, noon – 1 p.m.
October 23 at Lower Bucks Community College in Bristol, 12:15 p.m. – 1:15p.m.
October 24 at Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce/League of Women Voters, Waterwheel Restaurant in Doylestown, 8 a.m. – 9 a.m.
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The timeline, according to Strouse campaign:
August 13, 2014 — The organizer of the forum said in an email, “Fitzpatrick told our association president that he was interested and gave him the office manager for dates and follow up.”
September 5, 2014 — In an email to the Strouse and Fitzpatrick campaigns, and members of the Lin-Park Civic Association, both campaigns were formally invited to the public forum on October 7, giving each campaign over a month’s notice. The email referenced previous conversations with the campaigns, indicating that both campaigns had well over a month’s notice. The Strouse campaign immediately accepted this invitation
September 8, 2014 — In an email to both campaigns and the civic association, the organizer of the forum once again asked the Fitzpatrick campaign for a response.
September 15, 2014 — In an email from Fitzpatrick Campaign coordinator, Sam Bolstein, to the organizer of the forum, the Fitzpatrick campaign uses the three scheduled debates (WNPV 1440AM on October 15, Bucks County Community College on October 23, and The Waterwheel Restaurant on October 24) as an excuse for being unable to commit to any additional forums or debates.
September 21, 2014 — Fitzpatrick attends a forum with Kevin Strouse at Congregation Tifereth-Israel (in which all questions were pre-screened by moderators), debunking the claim that the Congressman would not do any additional forums/debates, or that “too little notice” was an issue in scheduling this forum. Had the Congressman been scheduled for this event before September 15, then it would have been included in Sam Bolstein’s email to the NAACP organizers. The Strouse campaign was not informed that the Congressman had accepted this invitation until just two days prior to the event.
Click to access Debate-Letter_July-2014.pdf
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