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Gerlach calls hypocrisy on Pike’s mailer

Congressman Jim Gerlach (R-6) on Tuesday shot back at Democratic challenger Doug Pike over a recent campaign mail piece, saying that criticizing Gerlach for taking campaign cash from Wall Street was “hypocrisy.”

Citing data from OpenSecrets.org, Gerlach’s campaign noted that—among industry sectors—finance, real estate and insurance were Pike’s second largest source of outside contributions, followed by lawyers and lobbyists. The vast majority of Pike’s campaign war chest has come from money he put into his own campaign, and he’s raised about $32,000 from the finance industry this cycle, compared to $114,000 raised by Gerlach, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Gerlach’s campaign said Pike was running the same “I hate Jim Gerlach” campaign that has failed for the last eight years.

“No wonder Democrats are fleeing this guy’s campaign like the plague,” Gerlach strategist Mark Campbell said in a statement. “Not only is Pike a carpet-bagger, he’s a hypocrite who’s spending his family’s estate to attack an honorable man and independent leader in Jim Gerlach.

“The most comical part of this entire piece is his promise to fight wasteful spending,” Campbell added. “Pike was tripping over himself last year to endorse the failed Pelosi stimulus plan that wasted a trillion dollars of borrowed money from China, and supported a government run health care system that will waste trillions of dollars more in borrowed money from China. Pike supports policies that will more than triple the national debt.”

In a statement, Pike reiterated that Gerlach has taken $1.7 million in campaign cash from financial sector interests over the years—52 times more than Pike has received.

“I don’t ‘hate’ Jim Gerlach, but he needs to be held accountable for his votes in Washington to bail out the big banks and to oppose reform legislation to clean up Wall Street,” Pike said. “Congressman Gerlach can distort my mailing as much as he wants, but the issue remains that he took $1.7 million from Wall Street and financial interests and then voted in their interest, instead of ours.”

Pike faces Reading doctor Manan Trivedi in the May 18 primary.

May 5, 2010 at 7:45 am

--pa2010.com Staff

Tags: Doug Pike, Jim Gerlach, Manan Trivedi, PA-6

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