Cartwright’s minions caught lying about Rob Bresnahan

September 20, 2024

Congressman Cartwright’s minions got caught running an ad about Rob Bresnahan that was so misleading that the ad was pulled off the air.

“Do-nothing Congressman Cartwright and his minions have nothing else to run on except lies and distortions about Rob Bresnahan. None of Cartwright’s desperate lies will hide the fact that Rob has worked to grow a successful business that provides 150 good-paying union jobs to the people of Pennsylvania.” — NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella

Read more from Broad & Libertyhere or see excerpts below.

Pelosi-allied PAC hits Bresnahan with another unfounded claim, stops ad
Broad and Liberty
Bradley Vasoli
September 20, 2024

House Majority PAC (HMP), the political outfit that recently mischaracterized northeastern Pennsylvania congressional candidate Rob Bresnahan’s (R) abortion stance, just ran another inaccurate advertisement.

The new ad was so misleading about Bresnahan, currently running in the 8th Congressional District against Democrat incumbent Matt Cartwright, that Bresnahan was able to get the ad canceled from airing.

The video depicts several costumed, prop-toting narrators taking turns bemoaning what they see as the Republican’s professional shortcomings. One young man holding a skateboard says, “Rob Bresnahan was handed the keys to his family fortune as a teenager.” Then a twenty-something male in a matte cap and gown complains, “Most of us get diplomas; Bresnahan was given a company.”

But no evidence suggests anyone gave Exeter-based Kuharchik Construction to Bresnahan. Yes, Bresnahan’s grandfather started the electrical contracting firm and Bresnahan became its CFO when he was nineteen. Nevertheless, long before the candidate launched his congressional bid, he attested to buying the entity from his grandparents after graduating college.

In a March 2022 appearance on the On the Stacks podcast, Bresnahan recalled purchasing the company only after meeting his grandmother’s condition that he receive “a four-year college degree from an approved university of her choosing.” He graduated from the University of Scranton in 2012 and, according to his attorney’s missive to TV broadcasters, bought the family business at a fair-market rate. He was no longer “a teenager” like the ad said he was.

“In fact, he purchased a debt-laden business and turned it into a successful operation, something HMP certainly doesn’t want viewers to know,” lawyer Jessica Johnson of the Holtzman Vogel firm wrote to station executives. “This advertisement is, at best, ignorant, and, at worst, intentionally deceitful. Regardless, it cannot be permitted to continue to air on your stations or elsewhere. With so much at stake this election, voters at the very least deserve to be told the truth about their candidates.”

Incidentally, the ad’s comment that “most of us get diplomas” also doesn’t jibe with local reality; no county in the district has a majority college-graduation rate for adults aged 25-64. Post-secondary degree-holders comprise 43 percent of that demographic in Lackawanna, 38 percent in Pike, 38 percent in Luzerne, 37 percent in Monroe and 31 percent in Wayne. Bresnahan, at any rate, has a diploma, despite the video insinuating that he doesn’t.

This isn’t the first time HMP put an erroneous anti-Bresnahan spot on the airwaves. In late summer, the PAC released a TV ad stating the candidate wanted to “pass a national abortion ban [with] no exceptions,” something he went on record opposing on August 14. HMP didn’t answer a request for comment before Broad + Liberty published that story nor did the committee respond to an inquiry about the newer ad depicting Kuharchik’s ownership transfer as a gift.

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