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PA Bill Number: HB2170

Title: In assault, further providing for assault of law enforcement officer; and making editorial changes.

Description: In assault, further providing for assault of law enforcement officer; and making editorial changes. ...

Last Action: Referred to JUDICIARY

Last Action Date: Mar 28, 2024

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State Senate election draws sharp ads :: 10/12/2015

The special campaign for a state Senate seat in the South Hills is generating hard-hitting attack ads, with Democratic and Republican operatives portraying the rival candidate as a foe of senior citizens, a crucial voting block.

The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee about two weeks ago began airing a television ad that features a sound bite of GOP nominee Guy Reschenthaler ruing the growth of federal entitlement programs, over which state senators have no direct authority. The narrator says, “He will cut Medicare and Social Security and raise our property taxes.”

A week ago, the state Republican Party put out a mailer that calls Democratic nominee Heather Arnet an “extreme” liberal and supporter of the Obama health care plan, which, it says, “will raise $800 billion in new taxes” and “cut Medicare by over $700 billion.”

“Stop Heather Arnet’s attack on our seniors,” the mailer says.

The ads have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, though Ms. Arnet said she has been vastly outspent thanks to GOP contributions from outside the district.

State lawmakers have no direct authority over federal entitlement programs, “but it’s obvious what’s going on,” said G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College. Each side wants to portray the rival nominee as an enemy of older voters, who are most likely to turn out for an off-year election, he said.

Mr. Reschenthaler, 32, an Iraq war veteran, former Navy prosecutor and district judge from Jefferson Hills, and Ms. Arnet, 41, a Mt. Lebanon resident and former Pittsburgh school board member who has led the Women and Girls Foundation on the South Side, are vying for the only state Senate seat on the ballot.

Democrat Matt Smith resigned the seat in June, setting up the special election Nov. 3.

Because they are running in a special election, the nominees were chosen by their parties instead of by voters in a primary. The winner will serve out Mr. Smith’s term, which expires at the end of next year.

The GOP controls the Senate by an 11-vote margin and wants to reclaim a seat it long held before Mr. Smith’s election in 2012.

Reschenthaler campaign spokesman Aaron Bonnaure said the Democrats’ TV ad is “incredibly misleading.”

“They just went out and said whatever they wanted to,” he said, adding that Ms. Arnet approved the ad.

Mr. Bonnaure said the sound bite — in which Mr. Reschenthaler expresses concern about the growth of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and says the “government is turning into an entitlement generating machine” — came from a Conservative Nation Radio talk show that the candidate hosted with a one-time legal client, former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie, a couple of years ago.

Neither in the sound bite nor any other part of the show did Mr. Reschenthaler propose cutting the federal programs, Mr. Bonnaure said. The spokesman added that Mr. Reschenthaler wants to freeze property taxes for seniors.

Joe Aronson, executive director of the state Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said the sound bite offers insight into how Mr. Reschenthaler would vote on state issues such as pensions and health care. Ms. Arnet said recordings of the radio show, “The Sound of Freedom with Hig and Resch,” include sexist language and insensitive comments about the poor and minority groups.

Megan Sweeney, spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, said her party’s mailer offers needed insight into Ms. Arnet’s values.

It says Ms. Arnet would join Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, now in a budget standoff with the GOP, in enacting giant tax hikes. It also says Ms. Arnet “supported Obamacare and its implementation,” a reference to an $89,350 grant the Women and Girls Foundation made to the Pennsylvania Health Law Project for advocacy and education related to the health care law.

Ms. Arnet said Mr. Wolf has neither donated to her campaign nor asked for her support. Although the mailer pictures the two together, Ms. Arnet said she has never been photographed with the governor.

Joe Smydo: jsmydo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2015/10/12/Senate-election-draws-sharp-ads/stories/201510120006