send to a friend | print | comment

Lentz hits Meehan over Civera’s two-job controversy (Updated)

State Representative Bryan Lentz (D-Delaware) on Thursday directly injected a colleague’s much-criticized decision to hold two elected offices into his congressional race, calling on his likely Republican opponent to join him in demanding that state Representative Mario Civera (R-Delaware) resign his House seat.

It was the first time that Civera, who has been pummeled by Delaware County Democrats for backing off a campaign pledge and keeping his Harrisburg job despite winning a seat on County Council, became an issue in the competitive 7th District race between Lentz and former U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan. It came after Lentz proposed legislation late last year to bar state lawmakers from holding other elected offices, and with Civera saying he’ll only resign if a special election is scheduled for before the May primary, when Democratic turnout is expected to be high.

Meehan has stayed silent on the issue, something Lentz sought to change Thursday.

“It is regrettable that more candidates and public officials are not speaking out about this issue,” Lentz said in a campaign statement. “It just goes to show you how powerful the status quo is and how badly we need a new type of leadership. This is not about Democrats or Republicans; this is about changing the way our government does business and restoring the people’s confidence in our leaders.

“I am calling on Pat Meehan to separate himself from the naked self-interest of his own political party machine and to stand with the people on the side of good government and reform,” Lentz added. “When you ask a citizen for their vote, you are asking for their trust and confidence. If you can’t stand up to the party bosses and the special interests on behalf of those people when it comes to important issues like reform and saving the taxpayers money than you don’t deserve their votes and you don’t belong in this line of work.”

Through a campaign spokesman, Meehan avoided taking a stance on the issue, instead opting to turn the focus back on Lentz.

“With 10 percent unemployment, trillions of dollars of growing national debt and dangerous terrorists on our soil, state Representative Bryan Lentz appears to care more about partisan political games,” Meehan campaign spokesman Pete Peterson said. “If legislator Lentz really cares about accountability to his constituents, he should start showing up for work. Since he has announced his candidacy for another job, Lentz has missed 71 votes. He skipped out on 44 separate votes alone that Gov Rendell himself called critical to filling a $250 million hole in the state budget. As a member of the state legislature that was last in the nation to pass a budget, state Representative Lentz could do the most to promote accountability by fulfilling his own obligation to the taxpayers. The only candidate in the congressional race who has a genuine record of standing up to corruption and fighting for increased accountability in government is Pat Meehan.”

For his part, Lentz also decried that Civera has essentially been holding his seat hostage over the issue of when a special election will be held.

“Reform saves the taxpayers money and helps restore their confidence in government,” he said. “That is why I proposed this common-sense reform measure in the first place—so that elected officials could not leverage one job against another or hold the electorate hostage for the benefit of their political cronies or special interests. People are tired of this old-style of machine politics. It is time to turn the page and move forward.”

One of Meehan’s political mentors, Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter, sided with his new party on the issue.

“I urge County Councilman Civera to uphold his pledge to resign from his House seat and to do so in a manner that does not deny the people of his district representation in Harrisburg,” Specter said in a statement. “In order to accomplish these goals, it would be best if Councilman Civera resigned at a time such that this vacancy may be filled during the May primary election. This would also save Delaware County the costs associated with holding a separate special election.”

After news of Specter’s statement, his primary opponent, Congressman Joe Sestak (D-7), also spoke out on the issue. Sestak’s campaign said Sestak had sent a letter to the local newspaper, in which he says that Civera “should honor his commitment to voters and constituents to resign his position in Harrisburg following his election to the Delaware County Council.

“Furthermore,” Sestak wrote in the letter, “there should be no attempt to alter the timing of a special election to replace Rep. Civera to the benefit of either party. The people of Pennsylvania have already witnessed enough attempts by party establishments to unduly influence the integrity of a free and fair electoral process that is the right of the voter.”

January 14, 2010 at 2:14 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Bryan Lentz, Mario Civera, PA-7, Pat Meehan

comments

comments [11] | post a comment