Gerlach and Fitzpatrick Accused of Wrongdoing

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a report saying that two embattled Republican incumbents have abused their Congressional franking priveleges for campaign purposes. Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-08) and Jim Gerlach (PA-06) have spent hundreds of thousands of tazpayer dollars to mail what are actually political pieces to constituents.

Franking is a term used for periodic mailings all members of Congress can send to inform their constituents of what's happening on various bills. Most congressmen use inexpensive paper newsletters. Gerlach and Fitzpatrick spent taxpayer funds on expensive, full color glossy production and abused this privelege by including content that was clearly political in nature.

In the 18 months ended June 30, Fitzpatrick spent $361,268 on mailing and printing and reproduction, the vast majority of which - $328,547 - he spent on mass mailings to residents of his district.

Gerlach spent $296,929, of which $269,657 was for preparing and mailing material to constituents under the congressional frank.

"This is campaign literature, and it's the use of taxpayer money to support these officeholders," said Craig Holman, a campaign-finance lobbyist for Public Citizen who reviewed recent mailings from Gerlach and Fitzpatrick. His organization is an independent watchdog organization in Washington.

These accusations come just several days after Gerlach sanctimoniously accused his opponent of breaking rules about direct mail by not including a technical disclaimer.

Not only were these expensive mail pieces a vast waste of taxpayer money the Congressmen used a Republican owned company to produce them. Haven't they heard of desktop publishing? Any competent congressional staff should be capable of producing a basic, inexpensive newsletter for franking purposes. These glossy, full color pieces are obviously political mailings.

Of the money Gerlach and Fitzpatrick spent on printing and reproduction, $143,329 from Gerlach and $130,548 from Fitzpatrick paid for printing and design provided by a Salt Lake City company, the Franking Group, which is owned by Arena Communications, a Republican direct-mail outfit.

Before Jim Gerlach exposes himself as a gifted hypocrit he ought to get his own house in order. I've had Republicans in his District come to me and express their outrage over his use of their taxes for these mailings. If his own Party members and voters are upset over this how will they react when they discover he may be violating the law?