The fallout continues from Congressman Joe Barton’s outrageous apology to British Petroleum for efforts to hold them accountable for cleanup costs in the Gulf, yet Jim Gerlach, a staunch Barton ally, remains silent on Barton’s comments. Considering that Rep. Gerlach has taken $17,500 in campaign contributions from Barton’s “Texas Freedom Fund,” the campaign of Manan Trivedi believes voters have a right to know if Gerlach supports Barton’s outrageous apology to British Petroleum.
“Since Representative Gerlach has taken $17,500 in contributions from Congressman Joe Barton’s political organization, Gerlach owes Pennsylvania voters more than just silence in response to Barton’s indefensible apology to British Petroleum,” said Trivedi spokesperson, Ed Niles. “Voters deserve to know if Jim Gerlach’s loyalty runs deeper with British Petroleum apologist Joe Barton or with the people of this district who want to hold the oil giant accountable for every dime’s worth of damage.”
The Trivedi campaign challenged Rep. Gerlach to not only publicly denounce Barton’s apology to BP, but to use the $17,500 he received from Barton to actually help with the recovery of the Gulf Coast.
“Once Gerlach is done repudiating his BP apologist supporters, we’re calling upon him to make amends for his long silence by donating the $17,500 given to him by Barton to an organization such as Save our Gulf, the Gulf Restoration Network or another entity that will directly help the people impacted most. Pennsylvanians deserve leaders who will stand up for their interests, but Jim Gerlach has repeatedly demonstrated that he’s either unwilling or incapable of doing so. It’s time for Jim Gerlach to end his silence and finally do the right thing,” Niles concluded.
Background:
On June 17th, Republican Congressman Joe Barton, issued a public apology to British Petroleum chief executive Tony Hayward for the Obama Administration’s attempts to hold BP accountable for cleanup costs thorough a $20 billion escrow account, describing it as a “shakedown.” [Politico; 6/17/10]
Representative Jim Gerlach has taken $17,500 in campaign contributions from Congressman Joe Barton’s Texas Freedom Fund. [Open Secrets – election cycles including 2004, 2006 and 2008].
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This press release was interesting the 1st 2 times I read it about Meehan and Murphy. Nice cut and paste job guys.
Barton already apologized and the GOP leadership quickly smacked him down right after he said it. As those Clinton apologists used to say in the late 90’s “Move On”.
Dems are going down hard in November, and trying to tie local candidates to a comment no one remembers made by a guy no one outside of his district even knows is a pointless exercise.
Obama’s massive ego and slamming through a healthcare reform package no one wanted is the reason you guys are in deep sh*t this November.
Good luck, you’re going to need it.