Lentz Questions Meehan’s Decision To Skirt Town Hall in which Schneller Would Not Appear

Springfield, PA – In a year dubbed by Politico Magazine as the “Year of the Missing Candidate”[1] Pat Meehan is showing that he is falling in lock step with the campaign strategies of other Republican candidates around the country who refuse to appear in front of voters out of fear a public misstep will damage their campaign. On Monday night, Meehan said he was backing out of a long-standing debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters scheduled for next week[2], a decision that came less than two weeks after his disastrous performance in a debate in Havertown that was panned by local reporters.

In news reports about Meehan’s decision to back out of the League of Women Voters debate, the Republican cited Tea Party candidate Jim Schneller’s scheduled inclusion in the event as the reason why he would not to attend. That left unanswered why Meehan had also declined an invitation to attend a joint town hall proposed by his Democratic opponent Bryan Lentz that conservative radio talk show host Dom Giordano had agreed to moderate, and Jim Schneller had not been invited to attend.

A venue for the joint town hall has already been secured for October 18 at Delaware County Community College. All that remains is for Pat Meehan to answer why he does not want to attend a town hall where he would take questions directly from voters alongside Lentz in a forum moderated by notable conservative Dom Giordano.

Throughout his campaign, Meehan has declined to hold public events in order to avoid making the kind of public mistakes the Politico article is referencing, including backing out of a candidates forum at the Upper Merion Senior Center this Monday at the last minute. A ticker on VoteLentz.com tracking Meehan’s public appearances since the May primary shows that Meehan has made just one quarter of the public appearances that Democrat Bryan Lentz has made during the same time. Even in those limited public appearances, Meehan has made large blunders, including a mid-June press conference in Harrisburg that was ridiculed by media outlets around the state and the recent debate in Havertown.

“Pat Meehan can try and duck behind Jim Schneller as an excuse, but his behavior on the campaign trail in recent days is no different than what he’s done all along,” said Kevin McTigue, campaign manager for Bryan Lentz. “Pat Meehan can barely remember the talking points provided by his campaign handlers let alone answer unscripted questions from voters, and that’s why he’s stalling and trying to hide behind the advertising campaigns of corporate special interests rather than face a live audience of residents from the 7th District.”

During his entire campaign, Bryan Lentz has reached out to voters throughout the District. Lentz has been holding a series of town halls and issue forums in Delaware, Montgomery and Chester county since mid-July that have been attended by voters of all political Parties.

A former Airborne Ranger, criminal prosecutor and Iraq War veteran, Bryan Lentz currently serves in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Delaware County. He was awarded both the Bronze Star for Service and the War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal for his military service. He lives in Swarthmore with his wife Jennifer and their son Thomas.

###