FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 18, 2014
CONTACT: Alex Roth, 619-228-3253San Diego – In a recent SurveyUSA poll, voters in California’s 52nd Congressional District ranked “integrity” as the characteristic they most wanted in their Congressman, and on that issue, the poll revealed, Rep. Scott Peters leads Carl DeMaio by a margin of 19 points, 56% to 37%.It’s little wonder why. Below is a recap of just some of DeMaio’s rank hypocrisy and deceitful tactics.In just the past few months:
- – DeMaio received national media scrutiny for blatantly plagiarizing a National Journal report on pensions. DeMaio claimed to have “authored” the report, which was copied almost entirely from the publication’s website. In response, DeMaio said he would “take full responsibility” because “I don’t throw my staff under the bus.” Then he blamed a staff member who he later said had been dismissed from the campaign.
- – DeMaio continues to attack Peters for receiving a pension that he earned while on the City Council, but fails to mention that Peters doesn’t keep a penny of it. Peters donates 100% of his pension back to the city to fund libraries. Peters doesn’t accept the Congressional pension or healthcare either.
- – DeMaio attacked Peters for accepting the same car allowance that all members of the City Council received six years ago in lieu of mileage, while AT THE SAME TIME airing TV ads that feature THE ONLY resident of the 52nd District who STILL ACCEPTS a city car allowance.
- – DeMaio publically tried to deny his Tea Party ties, but has raised tens of thousands of dollars from PACs controlled by Tea Party extremists and from members of the House Tea Party Caucus themselves. DeMaio’s own speech to a local Tea Party group in 2012, in which he said if he won he would “owe them everything,” has received a great deal of attention from national media.
- – DeMaio has repeatedly attacked Congressman Peters for being “a multi millionaire” while DeMaio himself is a multi-millionaire who made much of his vast wealth from federal government contracts. More than $300,000 of them were ‘no-bid’ contracts.
- – DeMaio is under scrutiny from voters who are disgusted by his practice of sending fake emails from phony email address to voters in the district, making outlandish misstatements about Peters. DeMaio adds over 50 blank lines below before adding the required disclaimer, “Paid for by Carl DeMaio for Congress” to fool people into thinking the emails came from a friend or neighbor.
- – DeMaio’s habt of seizing credit for other people’s successes was one of the reasons the city’s Republican mayor famously tore into him at a 2012 press conference, noting that DeMaio “probably takes credit for my weight loss. He probably takes credit for the weeks I pulled in my backyard last week. It’s all bulls—t.”
- – While running for Mayor, DeMaio claimed to have cut his salary, but was called out by UT San Diego for the rank hypocrisy of refusing to cut his own pay while cutting city workers pay by 6%. He also gave his own staff pay raises while cutting police and fire services.“Character counts and people want a Congressman they can trust,” said Peters campaign spokesman Alex Roth. “Everyone has missteps or makes mistakes once in awhile, but DeMaio’s has a long and checkered history of playing loose with the facts and misleading voters. We’re going to call him on it every step of the way between now and election day.”