Rothfus: Obama critic Critz should endorse Romney
Western Pennsylvania's biggest congressional campaign keeps on giving.
A day after the Mark Critz campaign tried to box in GOP opponent Keith Rothfus on cutting Medicare spending, the Rothfus campaign returns with another volley: if Critz is so down on Barack Obama, why not join him in endorsing Mitt Romney?
“The current representative of the 12th district is trying to fool his own constituents because for him, politics comes first,” said Rothfus. “If Congressman Critz truly believes that President Obama’s statements on the state of the economy were out of touch, he should waste no time in issuing an endorsement of Mitt Romney.”
Critz refused to endorse Obama during primary season, has criticized the president's energy policies and announced he would not attend the Democratic National Convention.
We'll update with a response from the Democrat's team. UPDATE: Response from Critz spox Mike Mikus below:
"This latest release shows that Keith Rothfus simply doesn't get Western Pennsylvanians. The people here want a Congressman who will fight for jobs for the region instead of carrying the water of any President or leader in Congress. That is why one of Mark Critz's first actions after being elected was voting to eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and it is why he is fighting to stop China from manipulating their currency to get an unfair advantage over Pennsylvania companies. It is also why he is fighting to eliminate burdensome regulations that hurt small business and opposes every unfair trade that ships jobs overseas.
It is not surprising that Keith Rothfus would issue a press release like this because all he understands is Tea Party partisan politics. No seeking common ground, no compromise, always putting the people last. It further explains why he wants to make the Bush tax cuts for wealthy people like himself even though it will add $700 billion while forcing seniors to pay $6,000 more per year for health care by privatizing Medicare."
Full Rothfus press release after the jump:
Pittsburgh, PA – Keith Rothfus, Republican candidate for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District, has called on Democrat congressman Mark Critz to join him in endorsing Mitt Romney for president."Since we know Congressman Critz voted with Nancy Pelosi's leadership 95% of the time and has sided with President Obama 70% of the time, deciding to join me may look a bit hypocritical," said Rothfus. "But if you've been watching the congressman's recent frantic attempts to run from his record and his allegiance with President Obama, it only seems like the next logical step."
Recently, the congressman delivered some half-hearted criticism of President Obama's outlook on the state of the economy and has said he will skip the Democrat National Convention.
"The current representative of the 12th district is trying to fool his own constituents because for him, politics comes first," said Rothfus. "If Congressman Critz truly believes that President Obama's statements on the state of the economy were out of touch, he should waste no time in issuing an endorsement of Mitt Romney."
Rothfus said he believes Critz's recent actions belie his actual voting record in Congress, considering that he refused to repeal the Medicare-busting Obamacare law and voted to protect it a total of 20 times. Similarly, when faced with the prospect of curtailing our national debt, Congressman Critz wrote a letter supporting a clean increase in the debt ceiling without commensurate budget cuts.
"I call on Congressman Critz to join me in endorsing Governor Romney for president," concluded Rothfus. "Of course, if Congressman Critz chooses to join me in endorsing Mitt Romney, he would have a lot of explaining to do to the voters of his district. He would need to explain not only his support for Obamacare, but also his support for President Obama's liberal economic policies that have resulted in 40 straight months of unemployment above 8% and four straight years of trillion dollar deficits."