send to a friend | print | comment

A Burns Web link draws a print rebuke

There are few things in politics that garner as little attention as the news feed on a campaign Web site, where candidates highlight favorable press coverage. But a link on Republican Tim Burns’ Web site has drawn criticism from Democrats and a more formal rebuke from the a high-profile GOP supporter of his opponent.

Burns’ Web site currently links to a post by Dawn Rager, a corporate communications specialist and conservative blogger from outside Johnstown. In the post, written in late May shortly after Burns lost the special election to Democrat Mark Critz, Rager laments that 12th District voters seemed to discount Burns as “not one of us” because he is such a wealthy businessman. “We have become a nation who regularly puts down and condemns those who work hard (from the ground up) to get where they are today,” Rager wrote.

But it is her contention near the end of the post—and the campaign’s decision to highlight it—that has drawn some criticism. In the post, Rager seems to imply the residents of the western Pennsylvania district aren’t hard-working. “I DO AGREE that ‘Tim isn’t one of us’ from the standpoint [that] he’s a very hardworking individual with courage and a fire in his heart which MANY OF US, unfortunately, LACK,” Rager wrote.

Mark Pasquerilla, the wealthy Crown American CEO and registered Republican who made waves by backing Critz, took out an ad in Sunday’s Tribune Democrat to vent his anger.

“Mr. Burns,” Pasquerilla writes in the ad, “please stop disrespecting the hard working people of this district.”

Burns campaign spokesman Kent Gates said the blog post made “some valid points,” but that Burns doesn’t share Rager’s expressed sentiment about district residents.

“Tim Burns obviously has high respect for the work ethic and the spirit of western Pennsylvanians,” Gates said. “This is just another misleading, deceitful attack by someone connected to the Critz campaign. I don’t think anybody who knows Tim Burns believes the lies that Mark Pasquerilla has spread.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also seized the opportunity to take a dig at Burns. The general election rematch between Critz and Burns is currently No. 8 on the pa2010.com Congressional Power Rankings. Rager could not immediately be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

“We already knew that Tim Burns was out of touch with western Pennsylvania,” DCCC spokesman Shripal Shah said, “we just never expected him to brag about it on his own Web site.”

July 26, 2010 at 2:12 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Mark Critz, PA-12, Tim Burns

comments

comments [6] | post a comment