(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)
A Lancaster-based political action committee has placed yard signs in Bucks County falsely declaring that U.S. Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1, Bucks) “voted to defund the police.”
One of the placards appears at the busy intersection of Routes 132 and 611 in Warrington next to a massive pro-Fitzpatrick sign noting the Fraternal Order of Police Bucks County Lodge #53 supports reelecting the congressman next month. As if to suggest he and his law-enforcement allies are peddling misinformation, another sign placed there by the same anti-Fitzpatrick group reads, “Don’t believe everything Fitzpatrick says.”
A former FBI agent, Fitzpatrick has reliably received police organizations’ support since first running for Congress in 2016. In addition to the F.O.P., he has the endorsement of Police Leaders for Community Safety.
A PAC called Losers and Suckers Vote, whose name seemingly refers to secondhand recollections that former President Donald Trump called dead servicemen “losers” and “suckers,” produced the signs.
And yes, the placards are as deceptive as they sound.
The PAC footnoted the police-defunding sign with a URL for the federal Limit, Save, Grow Act, a plan to reduce spending on various discretionary programs. It passed the GOP-controlled House in April last year with Fitzpatrick’s vote but did not become law, lacking support of either the Democrat-run Senate or the Biden White House.
The act did not not cut law-enforcement personnel, though opponents argued its lack of specificity could lead to such cuts. Shortly after the act passed the House, President Joe Biden warned, “The Republican plan would cut federal law enforcement officers — 30,000 — including 11,000 FBI agents, 2,000 border agents, DEA agents, and so on.”
PolitiFact, an oft-cited fact-checking website overseen by the nonprofit Poynter Institute, rated the statement “Mostly False” on its “Truth-O-Meter” scale.
That says a lot: Journalist Matt Palumbo, in his book on the fact-checking industry, Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers, wrote PolitiFact “has rightly garnered a reputation for being the most clearly biased [such outlet] in favor of the left.”
Examples of the site’s progressive and anti-Republican bent abound. In 2012, for instance, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) received a “Half True” rating when he said America had a zero-percent federal income-tax rate before 1913. When Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) made virtually the same comment three years later, PolitiFact rated his assertion “Mostly True.” (The site changed Webb’s rating to “Half True” when observers saw the inconsistency.)
Those responsible for spreading a claim about Fitzpatrick debunked by even so leftist an arbiter as PolitiFact did not reply to Broad + Liberty with any comments.
They include the leadership of the Harbor Business Compliance Corporation, the Lancaster-based entity where Losers and Suckers Vote is headquartered. The PAC’s treasurer is Steve Masters, a zoning attorney and government-relations specialist in Philadelphia.
Another key player who did not answer inquiries via email or phone was David Bader, president of the Fat Badger Bakery in Pipersville, who contributed all of the $13,000 the PAC raised over at least the last two years, according to campaign finance reports. Bader is a major donor to Democrats’ electoral efforts in Bucks County, having given $20,000 to the Turn Bucks Blue PAC last year.
It’s uncertain how many signs Losers and Suckers Vote has placed. The committee also maintains a website devoted entirely to blasting Fitzpatrick, mostly over abortion policy and the congressman’s (tenuous) ties to Trump.
Fitzpatrick’s campaign also did not comment by deadline.
Despite the desperation evident in some of his detractors’ tactics, the congressman’s reelection bid against Democrat Ashley Ehasz, who also ran against him two years ago, seems poised to succeed. The Cook Political Report, despite listing the contest as one of 70 “competitive [House] races,” rates its eventual outcome as “likely Republican.”
Few polls have been taken on the race — all four surveys compiled by the data-crunching FiveThirtyEight website were candidate-sponsored — but what little data exists bodes well for the incumbent. A Fitzpatrick-commissioned survey fielded in early September showed him with a 14-percent lead. Even an Ehasz-sponsored poll conducted over roughly the same period showed her opponent ahead by five points.
Another Bucks sign dispute
Fitzpatrick isn’t the only Bucks Republican with foes putting dubious messaging on signs. Anna Payne, the Democrat vying to unseat state Representative Joe Hogan (R-142, Langhorne), has produced lawn signs indicating “Planned Parenthood” endorsed her.
A southeastern Pennsylvania Democrat boasting of her endorsement by the abortion-focused nonprofit sounds unremarkable. But words matter. Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is a 501(c)(3) organization and thus forbidden from endorsing political candidates. Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania PAC, however, operates under the aegis of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a 501(c)(4) committee that can support candidates.
Yet Payne’s signs sport a logo that just reads “Planned Parenthood,” not denoting the Pennsylvania PAC. Lest the distinction appear trivial, consider the ordeal Fitzpatrick went through when his campaign made signs in 2018 that said “Humane Society Animal Protection Endorses Brian Fitzpatrick.”
The congressman actually received the endorsement of the affiliated Humane Society Legislative Fund, a 501(c)(4). Consequently, the organization’s nonpolitical wing asked Fitzpatrick’s campaign to rephrase the signs and he did, though his critics seized on the topic.
“Local Democratic activists have been hounding the Fitzpatrick campaign on the issue for several weeks, often taking to Twitter to voice their displeasure,” The (Langhorne) Intelligencer reported at the time.
Hogan wants Payne to remedy her signs like Fitzpatrick did. Neither she nor Planned Parenthood Federation of America nor Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania returned requests for comment.
“I think they should correct the signs,” Hogan told Broad + Liberty. “I think the signs should be corrected to make it accurate of which organization is making a political endorsement and which one is not.”
Broad + Liberty attempted to contact the Payne campaign through the Pennsylvania House Democratic Campaign Committee and through a direct message to the campaign’s Facebook account. Neither inquiry was answered.
Philadelphia Republican election attorney Matt Wolfe said use of a non-PAC logo theoretically suggests inappropriate use of nonprofit funds for political purposes and could provoke an opposing candidate to seek an investigation by the commonwealth. But realistically, he explained, utilizing such a logo just means someone should have been more meticulous when designing the signs. Ultimately, he said, campaigns should make sure to display the proper insignia.
“The reality is that the 501(c)(4) logo looks enough like Planned Parenthood’s regular logo and that would be perfectly fine to use on literature and get the message across but some campaign operative wasn’t careful and put the wrong logo on…,” Wolfe said. “But when you say you’re endorsed by Planned Parenthood and you put the 501(c)(3) logo on it, you’re saying you’re endorsed by an entity that is not permitted to endorse you and in that sense should be called out on that.”
Hogan said his campaign will determine whether to take official action if Payne makes no adjustment.
