Wednesday, September 5, 2012

CD6 VIDEO: Roscoe Bartlett Airs 1st Negative TV Ad Against Democrat John Delaney // PLUS: Read Delaney's Response

BARTLETT THROWS FIRST PUNCH: Rep. Roscoe Bartlett has followed up on recent GOP attack mail against his opponent John Delaney, with a new negative TV ad against the Democratic challenger. The Washington Post's Ben Pershing reported on the context and content for the ad (excerpt below).
WASHINGTON POST: Bartlett’s TV ad, his first of the general election, takes aim at some of the companies that took loans from Capital Source....

“Delaney’s company owned nursing homes where Medicare inspectors found mistreatment of seniors, including failing to properly administer medication and failing to treat seniors with dignity and respect."

“Delaney’s company also backed a landfill that was shut down for illegally accepting thousands of tons of trash."

You can also watch the Roscoe Bartlett attack ad below:



John Delaney's campaign responded with the following press statement and rebuttals:

PRESS RELEASE


Bartlett’s Desperate Attempt to Remain in Office Fundamentally Misrepresents Facts

Bartlett television ad features false and hypocritical accusations

On the heels of the Maryland Republican Party’s blatantly untrue negative mail ad attacking John Delaney, Roscoe Bartlett’s campaign is running a television ad that rebroadcasts the same distortions.

The reality is the only candidate in the race who has ever polluted drinking water is Roscoe Bartlett.  According to The Maryland Department of the Environment and the Frederick County Health Department Bartlett provided the tenants of his apartment complex drinking water polluted with unsafe levels of the carcinogen nitrate and fecal coliform bacteria.[1]  At the time of the violations, Bartlett responded in the press by saying that that the clean water standards of the time were “silly” and that the water was safer than eating a hotdog.[2] 

Statement from John Delaney in response:

"I remain extremely disappointed in Congressman Bartlett’s lies and misrepresentation about my business career and view them as an attack on free enterprise. The fact is, while Congressman Bartlett was in Washington, I was working to create thousands of jobs in Maryland and helping businesses across the country grow. It is a shame that in an attempt to remain in office Congressman Bartlett aims to attack a successful business and distort the truth, rather than offer solutions of his own."
“Given Bartlett’s history, this false attack is as hypocritical as it is outrageous.  The only candidate in this race with a record of endangering the public health with contaminated drinking water is Roscoe Bartlett,” said Campaign Manager Justin Schall.  “Sadly, Congressman Bartlett has signaled he wants to run a false, negative, campaign. He should take these false ads down immediately and try to the stick to the facts in the future.”

The Facts:

National Waste Services of Virginia
  • The company founded by John Delaney, CapitalSource, is a lender who provides loans to thousands of businesses.
  • Neither John Delaney nor CapitalSource has owned or operated a landfill.
  • CapitalSource loaned money to National Waste Services of Virginia, it is simply one of the more than 5,000 companies that have received loans from CapitalSource. After the violations, it is well documented that Page County, Virginia took over all operations of the landfill, not John Delaney or CapitalSource[3]

Haven Healthcare
  • The Hartford Courant, the same paper Bartlett cites, noted at the time that Capital Source, by law, could not “…operate a nursing home, but must hire a licensed provider to do so."[4]
  • CapitalSource made a loan to a nursing home owner that later went out of business and Connecticut’s Attorney General stepped in.
  • After a deal to sell homes “abruptly collapsed,” the Attorney General asked CapitalSource and the other creditors to step in and take over ownership “to keep the homes open and preserve and enhance the quality of care."[5]  Even with ownership, CapitalSource was still legally not allowed to operate the homes.
  • CapitalSource took over ownership while it looked for a buyer. CapitalSource was still legally not allowed to operate the homes.
  • If Capital Source had not stepped in, the state would place “…the chain into state receivership — an expensive, last-resort process that could drive down occupancy in the nursing homes and lead some of them to close.”[6]

Text of Bartlett Ad

I’m Roscoe Bartlett and I approve this message.

What kind of Congressman would John Delaney be?

Delaney’s company owned nursing homes where Medicare inspectors found mistreatment of seniors, including failing to properly administer medication and failing to treat seniors with dignity and respect.

Delaney’s company also backed a landfill that was shut down for illegally accepting thousands of tons of trash. It even let polluted water runoff flow from the dump.

As Congressman, John Delaney would serve his interests, not ours.

###
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Paid for by Friends of John Delaney
 




[1] “Bartlett Hit with New Charges,” Headlee, Hagerstown Herald-Mail, 10/3/1992
[2] “Bartlett Cries Foul Over Hattery Brochure,” Rowland, Hagerstown Morning Herald, 10/28/1992
[3] “Page County Works on Landfill Having Taken Control,” Trice, Richmond Times Dispatch, 4/30/2005

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