Giving Till They're Blue?

Summary
It's not uncommon for GOP candidates to accuse each other of not being Republican enough. But the fight is ordinarily over issues, such as tax cuts. In Pennsylvania, two House candidates are instead attacking each other for sending money behind enemy lines. The ads they've launched provide a good lesson in how politicians can mislead voters even with accurate numbers.

Chris Hackett accuses his opponent of having "a long history of supporting liberal Democrats." Actually, the opponent, Dan Meuser, occasionally gives to politicians who are important to his company, but 91 percent of his  personal donations go to Republicans.

Meuser fires back that Hackett's charge is a hypocritical smear, because "80 percent of Hackett's donations go to Democrats." Actually the percentage is 60 percent. More importantly Hackett gives little to anybody, and nearly all of what he gave to Democrats went to one candidate who was a Chamber of Commerce colleague.

Viewers of these dueling attack ads could think that each candidate is disloyal to his party. The truth is, they are both businessmen who had pragmatic or personal reasons to give to the other side.

Analysis
Pennsylvanians won't be punching ballots just for presidential candidates on Tuesday. There are congressional primaries too, and GOP House candidates in Pennsylvania's 10th district are going after each other just as vigorously as Obama and Clinton are. Dan Meuser, whose company sells electric scooters and lifts for people with disabilities, and Chris Hackett, who runs a recruiting and staffing firm, have spent more than $1.1 million on a barrage of ads, which took a sharp turn for the negative at the beginning of April.

These ads don't focus on policy positions. Both candidates' platforms are straight out of the GOP playbook anyway. Instead, each contender is going after the other for bankrolling (gasp) Democrats, including one donation to Republican foe Hillary Clinton.

Chris Hackett for Congress Ad: "Democrats"

Hackett: I'm Chris Hackett and I approve this message.

Announcer: Who can we trust to stand up for us? Dan Meuser has a long history of supporting liberal Democrats. Last election, Meuser gave $5,000 to Ed Rendell. Last year, Meuser gave thousands to liberal New York Congressman Charlie Rangel who proposed the largest tax increase in history. And Meuser even had his company give money to Hillary Clinton. Dan Meuser: If he's willing to bankroll Hillary Clinton, what would he do in Congress?

A Splash in the Bucket
Hackett says that Meuser and his company have donated to prominent Democrats in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Senate, including Hillary Clinton. He's right. The state's campaign finance database shows a $5,000 contribution by Meuser to Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell in 2006, and the Center for Responsive Politicsrecords a $2,300 donation to Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel in 2007. That's a total of $7,300 that Meuser contributed personally to Democrats.

But the same records show that Meuser personally donated a total of $41,200 to federal campaigns and $37,430 to state ones, for a total of $78,630. That means that his dalliances with Democrats make up 9 percent of his total personal contributions. And they are not as out of character as they might seem. As the owner of a large Pennsylvania business, Meuser might have reason to be financially friendly to the Pennsylvania governor and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The committee has jurisdiction over Medicare, on which Meuser's company, Pride Mobility, depends heavily to finance purchases of its products by the over-65 set.

Separately, his company's political action committee donated $1,000 to Clinton's Senate campaign in 2005, according to the Federal Election Commission. The PAC made lots of other contributions to Democrats, too – a total of $25,300. That's 22 percent of the PAC's total $116,550 in political donations.