Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s glossy mailers attacking one of her GOP rivals has caught the attention of FactCheck.org, a widely respected non-partisan group that researches the claims made by political candidates and debunks those found to be untrue.
The McMahon campaign has sent out a number of brochures critical of Rob Simmons, including allegations that the former congressman cosponsored a cap and trade bill that will “cost the average American family more than $1,7000 a year.”
Team McMahon also tried to tie Simmons to the controversial group ACORN. The McMahon mailer alleges that Simmons was one of ACORN’s congressional chums when he served in the U.S. House: “Congressman Simmons voted with ACORN 56 percent of the time,” the mailer asserts. In fact, McMahon claimed Simmons is a better friend to ACORN than Democrat Chris Dodd.
The Simmons campaign has been complaining about the veracity of these statements and FactCheck agrees. In an article titled “You’ve Got False Mail,” published today on the group’s website, FactCheck sifts through the McMahon statements and finds them riddled with falsehoods.
“ACORN’s legislative scorecard for the 109th Congress in 2006, based on House and Senate members’ votes on ACORN’s key legislative issues, shows, as the mailer notes, that Simmons earned a 56 percent “pro-ACORN” rating. Dodd, however, received a perfect 100 percent “pro-ACORN” rating,” FactCheck found.
The group brought the matter to the attention of McMahon spokesman Ed Patru, who issued a correction on the campaign’s website.
Will the issue come up in tonight’s debte between the Republican candidates? We’ll see.