Bruiser of a state race in Delco
Political mail pieces attacking GOP candidate Paul Mullen (left) by the 'Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania PAC,' and against Lisa Esler (right) from the state Republican party)
It’s mayhem in mailboxes for voters in Delaware County – political mayhem, that is.
Voters are being treated to a brawl of a race for state representative this summer with the toughest punches being thrown by Republicans – at each other.
There’s a special election Aug. 4 to fill the Pennsylvania State House seat suddenly vacated this spring by Republican Joe Hackett, and GOP candidate Paul Mullen is getting a stiff write-in challenge from tea-party activist Lisa Esler, who has the backing of a potent political committee.
Check out the mail pieces above.
The pro-Esler one on the left attacks Mullen as a “liberal union boss” who supports prominent Democrats. Mullen is indeed a business manager for Local 654 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — some would say a good fit for a blue-collar Republican in the district.
The mailing on the right is from the state Republican Party attacking Esler as a tax-and-spender, since she’s a member of the Penn-Delco School Board.
The pro-Esler mailing is paid for by the Citizens Alliance for Pennsylvania PAC, a conservative committee that backed state Sen. Scott Wagner of York. Wagner stunned the state’s political community by getting more than 10,000 write-in votes and beating Republican and Democratic candidates in a special election last year. (It didn’t hurt that he was rich.)
The beneficiary of the infighting in Delaware County could be the Democratic candidate, Leanne Krueger Braneky, who lost to Hackett last year.
With just under three weeks to go, this could be fun to watch.
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