Donald Trump speaking before supporters at a rally in Arizona.
Credit: Gage Skidmore
If there is one person who’s getting a lot of play in the Eighth District Congressional race this year, it’s Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Democratic congressional candidate Steve Santarsiero, who is a state representative from Lower Makefield, has consistently hammered Republican opponent Brian Fitzpatrick, a retired FBI agent and brother of the current congressman, about his party’s candidate for president.
This week, Santarsiero’s campaign launched another assault on Fitzpatrick using Trump’s recent comments that appeared to suggest supporters of the Second Amendment use their right to bear arms to resist Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s attempt to appoint Supreme Court justices if she is elected.
“If (Hillary) gets to pick her judges, there’s nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know,” Trump told a crowd.
In response to the comments that drew lots of national media attention, Santarsiero released the following statement:
“If risking our national security by questioning our NATO alliance and inviting Russia to hack US computers — let alone attacking gold star parents — wasn’t enough to get Brian Fitzpatrick to stop supporting Donald Trump, perhaps threatening his Presidential opponent with armed violence will be. It seems like each day Trump’s rhetoric is more extreme and dangerous than the last. While we may no longer expect any better from Trump, we should at least expect our federal officeholders and candidates for Congress to speak up. To say nothing is to put a political party before the good of our nation.”
Credit: NewtownPANow.com
Despite Fitzpatrick not publicly endorsing Trump but stating at a primary election debate that he would vote for the Republican nominee, Santarsiero and his campaign have worked to link the former FBI agent from Middletown with the controversial Republican candidate for president.
Santarsiero has asked Fitzpatrick to denounce Trump and what the Democratic candidate for congress has called “dangerous rhetoric.”
Democratic political trackers posted video to YouTube of Fitzpatrick appearing to duck while taking a phone call in the cab of a pickup truck towing a large elephant and small Trump signs. The video was recorded as Fitzpatrick took a break from walking with various fellow Republicans in the Lower Southampton Fourth of July parade.
Efforts to connect Fitzpatrick and Trump have trickled into Santarsiero’s campaign fundraising emails.
Below is the text of one recent fundraising email:
“Steve has spent his time on the campaign trail telling the truth to voters: That Donald Trump is dangerously ill-equipped to keep our country safe and that Pennsylvania’s middle class needs an advocate in Congress.”
Part of a fundraising email sent out to Democrats Thursday.
Aaron Clark, spokesman for the Fitzpatrick campaign, fired back at Santarsiero and his campaign in a statement to LevittownNow.com. He called the Santarsiero campaign’s efforts to link Fitzpatrick and Trump a “complete obsession.”
“It is a shameful diversion of attention away from himself and the office he’s running for, and it is offensive to the intelligence of the independent-minded voters of Bucks and Montgomery counties. It’s the typical career partisan politician mindset that people are sick and tired of,” Clark said.
Clark made clear that Trump is not running for the Eighth Congressional District and said “Steve clearly can’t run against Brian’s record of arresting corrupt politicians and fighting terrorism as an FBI Special Agent. So what is Steve’s D.C.-led campaign left with? He attempts to deceive the voters by placing 100% of his focus on the presidential race, a different race for a different office in a different branch of government.”
Several articles that have run in different parts of the nation mention that some Republican leaders are worried the impact that Trump’s campaign and numerous unpredictable controversies could hurt races for congress and the senate. A Time report from Thursday morning cited Republican sources as stating GOP Chairman Reince Priebus told Trump to get his campaign back on message or the national Republican party would focus more of their efforts on House of Representative and Senate races.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump among registered voters by 48 percent to 37 percent in Pennsylvania, a state that is considered a bellwether for the national race.
Clark said he thinks Santarsiero’s effort to link Fitzpatrick to Trump show the “weakness” of the Democrat’s candidate. However, recent efforts show that Santarsiero’s campaign believes attempting to link Fitzpatrick to the New York real estate mogul and TV star will pay off for them this election cycle.
The effects on Clinton’s lead and Trump’s controversies in the Eighth District, which encompasses all of Bucks County and a portion of Montgomery County, is not yet clear. As the roughly three months left in the election cycle wind down, the impact – if any at all – Trump has on Fitzpatrick’s chances to win his brother’s seat will become more clear.
