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Lentz gave to Santorum in 2000
For almost a year, Democrat Bryan Lentz and his supporters have worked to equate his Republican opponent with former Senator Rick Santorum, the conservative who got washed out of office by the Democratic wave in 2006. Pat Meehan, Lentz’s rival in the 7th Congressional District, was a campaign manager for Santorum, and counts the former senator as a close supporter.
But Lentz, a two-term state Representative, was briefly a Santorum supporter himself—at least financially.
Lentz gave Santorum’s campaign $250 in the summer of 2000, according to campaign finance data. While only a drop in the bucket of the millions that Santorum raised that cycle, the donation came just three months before Democratic nominee Ron Klink faced him at the polls.
The contribution was pointed out to pa2010.com by the Meehan campaign.
Lentz had not yet entered politics back then, and was in private practice as a lawyer between his Army deployments.
“As a favor to a friend, Bryan gave $250 in 2000 to Rick Santorum,” Lentz campaign manager Kevin McTigue said. “There is a big difference between supporting Rick Santorum’s campaign with $250 as a favor and supporting Rick Santorums’ far-right agenda like Pat Meehan does. If Pat would attend any of the Town Hall meetings Bryan’s been hosting, Bryan would be happy to discuss with him the difference.”
Santorum is the only Republican to which Lentz has ever donated, according to campaign finance data. He gave $400 to Bob Casey a year before Casey unseated Santorum, and has also donated money to Chris Carney and the late Ted Kennedy. Meehan, for his part, appears to have made only one campaign contribution over the last decade: a $250 donation to Arlen Specter’s campaign in 2008, a few months before the longtime senator switched parties.
Lentz’s contribution to Santorum was briefly an issue of contention for Delaware County Democrats when Lentz was first running for Congress in 2006, but never rose beyond the chattering class and comments on the blogosphere. Lentz eventually stepped aside for Joe Sestak.
Correction: The headline for this article originally misstated the year in which Lentz contributed to Santorum’s campaign. As the article noted, it was 2000, not 2006.
September 1, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Tags: Bryan Lentz, PA-7, Pat Meehan, Rick Santorum
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Chattering Class
Sep 1st, 2010
Dan,
Please check the accuracy of this article. Did he give in 06 as the title reflects or in 2000 as the body of the article reports.
Typos.
Tony Soprano
Sep 1st, 2010
Excellent. Because what we really need in Washington right now are Congressmen who thoughtlessly spend money as favors to friends.
sick of it all
Sep 1st, 2010
FEC records show it is 2000—so what? It matters not and if this is the best the Meehan boys got, it is as weak as their campaign or that flubbed presser in harrisburg.
David Diano
Sep 1st, 2010
Well, I guess that proves Meehan’s really not much of a Santorum supporter because he sabotaged Rick by contributing incompetence to the campaign.
Transplant
Sep 1st, 2010
Before I read the ‘favor to a friend’ line, that’s exactly what I thought would be the explanation.
Typically, amateur political junkies — and most people — see donations as supporting candidate X. So Lentz gave money to Santorum, therefore Lentz likes Santorum. However, to political fundraisers, fundraising works exactly in this dynamic.
When a candidate runs, he raises a lot of money from his family and friends. Regardless of ideology, these are the people most likely to give to you because they like you as a person. For instance, my father is super conservative, or my senior-year roommate, or some of my favorite college professors. I disagree with those people on most issues of policy, but I would give to them anyway because I like them personally.
Raising for events works in a similar fashion. You gather a host committee, and they raise money as if they were a candidate. So you have hosts say to their friends (particularly lawyers) “Come to my event and give $250 to Santorum as a favor to me because you like me” or “You owe me because I went to your thing”. So while most people would see this as posturing, it actually makes sense as an explanation, particularly since Lentz doesn’t have a track record of donating to Republicans — and it was a small amount that’s actually a standard amount for fundraising events.
k
Sep 2nd, 2010
Whatevevr! Plenty of good excuses here, alway justifying the means! that’s why were in such bad shape!
s. d. willy
Sep 2nd, 2010
just helping a friend….
TB
Sep 2nd, 2010
One more thing: Rick Santorum in 2000 was a much different candidate than rick Santorum in 2006. He was not nearly the right wing lunatic back then as he is today.