Springfield, PA – Just as the local news media was starting to take interest in a secretive, closed-door Tea Party meeting on Tuesday night where multiple Republican candidates planned to court the extreme Right Wing, Republican Congressional Candidate Pat Meehan backed out of appearing at the event. Meehan’s last-minute withdrawal is the latest effort to keep his views on the Tea Party’s controversial positions on issues like privatizing Social Security, cutting Medicare and eliminating the Board of Education from voters, even as he tries to actively court votes from fringe Right Wing groups.

For weeks, Meehan, an endorsed Tea Party candidate already, had been advertised as one of the four high-profile Republican candidates to speak to the members of the Tea Party Coalition of Southeastern Pennsylvania at a candidates’ forum in Montgomeryville. Other advertised speakers included, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett and Congressional candidates Mike Fitzpatrick and Dee Adcock.

The announcement of Meehan’s withdrawal came just as a reporter from the Philadelphia Daily News started asking why the candidates’ night was “off the record” and that no videotaping or recording devices were allowed and that no reporters would be allowed to attend the meeting to hear the candidates take positions on the Tea Party’s policies. A posting by the reporter on thePhiladelphia Daily News web site said that Meehan had backed out of the event due to a “previously scheduled event”.

Meehan’s withdrawal as the meeting came under scrutiny from the local press continues a pattern of his refusing to take a public stand on the Tea Party’s controversial stances on Social Security, Medicare and Education. Meehan has attended multiple Tea Party events, including a Tea Party rally in February, the Tri-State Take Congress Back Tea Party in April and the Americans for Prosperity “November is Coming” Tour in August.

“Since the start of his campaign Pat Meehan has tried to have it both ways pretending to be a moderate one day and speaking to the far-right wing of the Republican Party the next,” said Kevin McTigue, Bryan Lentz’s campaign manager. “It’s time for Meehan to be straight with the voters on where he stands on the Tea Party’s radical platform.”

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.