MERCER COUNTY — As Jason Altmire sees it, Melissa Hart has some explaining to do.

Altmire, the Democratic challenger to the 4th Congressional District Republican incumbent, isn’t alleging any criminal action by Ms. Hart took place, but he is raising questions about her relationship with U.S. Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio.

Ney last week became the first federal lawmaker to admit his guilt in the congressional corruption probe that was touched off by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Ney is expected to plead guilty next month to making false statements and conspiracy to commit fraud after improperly accepting tens of thousands worth of trips, meals, sports tickets and casino chips in return for pushing legislation favorable to the donors.

According to the federal campaign finance Web site tray.com, Ms. Hart — who represents Farrell, West Middlesex, Shenango Township and a sliver of Hermitage — and Ney were among four members of Congress who formed a joint fundraising committee — Good Government 2004 — during the 2003 and 2004 election cycle.

Based on information reported at tray.com’s PoliticalMoneyLine, the committee reported receipts and disbursements of $93,185 from Aug. 15, 2003 to March 11, 2004. Disbursements after $3,427 in operating expenses totaled $89,279, with Spencer Bachus, R-Ala. and Patrick Tiberia, R-Ohio getting $23,358 each, Ney receiving $21,441 and Ms. Hart $21,122.

The committee’s operating expenses included $1,615 for catering, $1,500 for Federal Election Commission compliance and $312 for in-kind salary and administrative costs.

Mercer County’s other congressman, U.S. Rep. Phil English, Erie, R-3rd District, accepted $5,000 from Ney’s political action committee and has since announced he would donate it to the American Red Cross.

Altmire said Ms. Hart’s situation is much different.

“She was a partner with Ney in a joint fundraising committee exactly at the same time he was committing these campaign violations for which he has pled guilty,” Altmire said.

Altmire said Ms. Hart needs to explain what her connection is to Ney. There’s a “clear difference,” he added, between English accepting money from Ney’s political action committee and Ms. Hart forming a political action committee with Ney and two others.

“At the minimum she should give it back (to donors), but the bigger issue is to explain her relationship with a guy who just pled guilty,” Altmire said, adding he would also like to know where the money came from and if any of it’s connected with the scandal Ney was involved in.

Ms. Hart’s campaign manager Luke Myslinski explained the committee was formed by the four lawmakers to for a “specific event,” which allowed donors to write one check to the committee before it eventually was split four ways.

“There was no personal involvement between Melissa Hart and Bob Ney,” he added.

Speaking on behalf of Ms. Hart, Myslinski also said there’s “absolutely no connection” between the event and what Ney has admitted doing and it’s “ludicrous” for anyone to attempt to connect them.

“The only connection is they served in Congress together, so you could make the connection to 433 other members of Congress,” Myslinski said.

Dr. Michael L. Coulter, an associate professor of political science at Grove City College, said forming specialized committees to host an event or a series of events is a common practice in Washington.

Coulter said the quartet were all members of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises, which was part of the House Committee on Financial Services. The donations for the event appear to have mostly come from people associated with financial service companies, he added.

Coulter said he didn’t think the relationship with Ney would hurt Ms. Hart’s campaign, noting that she reported raising $570,622 in political action committee donations during that same election cycle.