The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

May 5, 2010

Kelly attacks Huber on jobs

Top GOP hopefuls for Congress spar

By Matt Snyder Herald Staff Writer

MERCER COUNTY — The congressional Republican primary went negative with about two weeks to the finish line Sunday when candidate Mike Kelly accused candidate Paul Huber of sending jobs to Poland.

Huber, who denies the allegation, countercharged that Kelly is “stealing a page directly from the liberal playbook,” a reference to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee which also attacked Huber on that issue two weeks ago.

Huber called the charges “blatantly false” in a release, and campaign spokesman Danny O’Driscoll said it’s based on a misreading of a Department of Labor document.

“We expected these false attacks to come from national Democrats, but not from a Republican who has broken President Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment,” O’Driscoll said in a release. That “commandment” is never to speak ill of a fellow Republican.

Kelly and Huber are two of six Republicans vying for the nod to face incumbent U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Erie, D-3rd District. The two have dramatically outpaced their Republican competitors in terms of fundraising and have become the campaign heavyweights.

The ad ran on Sunday and was only briefly posted on the campaign’s YouTube site, said Kelly spokesman Jon Hopcraft. Asked if there was a reason they were pulled from YouTube, Hopcraft said, “No.” He later said they only posted the ad so some of Kelly’s family could view it, and that there were uploading issues.

O’Driscoll suggested the disappearing ad shows the Kelly campaign isn’t standing by it. Hopcraft said the ad would be put back, and it was posted as of Monday night.

The ad says, “Paul Huber sent jobs to Poland,” and accuses him of laying off local workers.

O’Driscoll said Huber increased from 80 to about 110 local employees while he owned his Meadville business, which he left in 2005. A layoff referenced in Kelly’s ad was due to foreign competition — not outsourcing — and was cyclical rather than permanent, O’Driscoll said.

Huber’s overseas partnerships in Poland and India were necessary to build very large equipment near where it was sold and to acquire intellectual rights, O’Driscoll has said. Huber said those partnerships helped them create jobs in Pennsylvania.

The ad is an indication that Kelly sees Huber as his main competition in a race where finances make the pair likely front-runners, said Grove City College political science professor Dr. Michael Coulter.

Kelly had $217,682, according to campaign filings on www.opensecrets.org, and Huber had $417,174. Both are heavily funding their own campaigns, and no other 3rd District candidate had more than $30,000 on hand.

Coulter added that Kelly probably wouldn’t target Huber alone unless the two had a bit of a lead on the other four candidates in internal polls.

Hopcraft said Kelly’s internal polls are from a month or so ago, but showed a close race with Kelly and Huber at the lead.

Asked about Huber’s claims that he increased employment and never outsourced, Kelly said he has “no problem with that” if Huber has data to prove it. He said Huber needs to prove his claims.

O’Driscoll, however, said it’s Kelly who is making the serious charges, and Kelly who has failed to back it up with evidence.

The accusations came with a sense of deja vu since in mid-April, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee attacked both Huber and Kelly: Huber on alleged outsourcing, Kelly on participating in Cash for Clunkers while condemning it.

Kelly reacted angrily to the Cash for Clunkers attack, called it “appalling,” and said Cash for Clunkers did little to benefit his car dealership other than create a short-term boost in car sales — sales that would have come eventually without the program.

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