PA-8: Santarsiero Blasts Naughton; Asserts Campaign Strength

santarsieroSteve Santarsiero is fighting back against the perception that party leaders have turned on him.

Last week, we reported that at a DCCC meeting party leaders expressed disappointment in Santarsiero’s campaign and were prepared to try and push him out of the race.

First, his team recounted all the advantages the State Rep. enjoys in his Democratic primary against Shaughnessy Naughton.

Among these were: he has raised over $378,000 so far; he holds the cash-on-hand edge over Naughton; and has the support of Democrats and labor unions in the district.

Santarsiero’s team also asserted they are “on track to lock up the Bucks County Democratic Committee endorsement by the fall”.

Finally, they took some direct shots at Naughton.

“The ridiculous claim that the Democratic Congressional Campaign wanted Steve out of the race was debunked by the DCCC itself.  We’ve spoken with them and it is obvious that this is the handiwork of our opponent,” said Santarsiero campaign manager Gabrielle Quintana Greenfield. “We have seen this type of rumor-mongering from the Naughton campaign before.”

Greenfield referenced Naughton’s efforts last year to pressure Democratic State Senate nominee Steve Cickay to drop out of the SD-10 race.

“The congressional primary was barely over when rumblings started that, instead of helping the Democratic nominees, Shaughnessy wanted to replace Cickay on the ballot to challenge McIlhinney,” stated Ron Smolow, chair of Cickay’s campaign. “The theory was that after a yearlong losing race, she had better name recognition and would make a stronger candidate than Steve Cickay, a newcomer. Her team falsely claimed that the Senate Dems had asked her to run and had a poll showing that she could beat McIlhinney.”

“I had déjà vu reading that article with ‘unnamed sources’ attempting to undermine a strong Democratic candidate like Steve Santarsiero,” Smolow continued. “It looks like there is a pattern here of Shaughnessy Naughton’s handlers trying to undermine an opponent’s political campaign based on rumor instead of fact.”

The Santarsiero campaign concluded with a statement from Bill Ritter, Democratic Chair of the 143rd district.

“I was a strong supporter of Shaughnessy’s in 2014. She worked to earn the support of Democratic committeepeople throughout the district last time,” Ritter said. “But when I saw how this played out and the interparty strife it caused, I could no longer support her. We need a united party if Democrats are going to win in Bucks County and that is why I am encouraged that we are lining up with Steve Santarsiero.”

11 Responses

  1. @BucksD – you mean “more” as in the bag boy for Kane? His name is all over that indictment. How long until he gets charged?

  2. Naughton has no experience, has never served the community and doesn’t even live in the district. Why is she being taken seriously?

  3. I’m pretty sure it was the Bucks Dems, not Naughton who wanted Cickay to drop out. Why would Naughton want to run in an unwinnable race? Did anyone besides Cickay himself really think he had a snowball’s chance at victory?

  4. It is revealing that Sean Ryan is unable to spell Santarsiero…but managed to spell “mexican” correctly both times.

  5. The Mexican Santarsero must be scared to drag out Ron Smokow. Cickay lost horrendously and was not assisted at all by the Mexican, whose entire district is within the 10th senatorial district.

  6. There are many people still upset about Naughton’s sore loser attempt to push Cickay out of the race. It’s telling that she was interested in the state Senate only after losing in the Congressional primary.

  7. Naughton has never done anything for Bucks other than show up and demand to be a candidate. I will be standing by the candidate who has worked for the party and the community for over 15 years.

  8. The DCCC statement on this was a whopping two sentences that didn’t deny anything. Just basically a polite “no comment”. Perhaps instead of Steve lashing out at his fellow Democrat he should blame himself for only raising $115k last quarter.

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