In 2004, when Charlie Dent was first elected by the people of the 15th District to serve in Congress, he ran against Joe Driscoll. Driscoll did not even live in the 15th District when he challenged Representative Dent, who was decisively elected by the people of the District.
Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, Representative Dent’s current opponent has at least one thing in common with Driscoll; she too is miserably failing at raising financial support from people in our community.
In her most recent campaign finance report covering the time between April 3rd and June 30th, Bennett raised $154,000 in contributions above the FEC-mandated $200 itemization threshold. Of this amount, only $19,820 came from contributors living within the 15th Congressional District.
A disturbing 87% of Bennett’s itemized (Non-PAC) contributions came from outside the communities that make up the 15th District.
In fact, Bennett raised more money from out of state ($34,409) than she did from people living in the 15th District ($19,820).
“It’s ridiculous,” said Dent Campaign Manager Shawn Millan. “You go through her reports and you see street addresses for California but nothing from Catasauqua. Even worse, Bennett has once again failed to disclose required information about her donors on the FEC Report.”
Bennett received 40 itemized contributions from people living in the 15th District and 202 from people outside of the District with 51 contributions of that total coming from out of state.
Millan, who managed Representative Dent’s 2004 campaign against Driscoll, sees patterns being repeated between Driscoll’s carpet-bagging candidacy and Bennett’s. “It’s the exact same. I used to page through Driscoll’s reports and the addresses would all be New York, Philadelphia, California, Massachusetts. Bennett’s are exactly the same.”
In fact if you compare Joe Driscoll’s report from 2004 covering the same time frame you’ll find out that he brought in nearly as much local money as Bennett – and he didn’t even live here. Driscoll raised $11,350 locally and Bennett raised about $19,800.
“People know about Siobhan Bennett, they know about her Properties of Merit salary scandal, they know her real record on driving May Fair into the ground, they remember her on-stage melt-down during her first losing race for Mayor,” said Millan. “Of course, she’s not raising money locally. Any one who knows these facts is not going to give her a contribution.”
And there’s the reason for concern.
Bennett said it best in an interview with the Washington correspondent of one of Pennsylvania’s leading papers when she took a trip to DC to meet with Washington “interest groups” who Bennett said had a “vested interest in the outcome” of her race.
