September in Bucks County … the leaves are starting to change colors, the kids are going back to school, and the giant Brian Fitzpatrick endorsement signs are springing up along our roadsides. It’s something we’ve all gotten used to across the past decade, and even longer, since Brian is only following in the footsteps of his brother, who represented our district before Brian moved back here from California. But have you ever wondered if those big signs were telling you the truth about groups that endorsed Brian Fitzpatrick?
You should wonder.
A local sign-watcher shared this image with the Bucks County Beacon.
But when you go to the website where the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has all their endorsees listed, there’s no mention of Republican Brian Fitzpatrick or Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District. It skips from the Oregon delegation straight to PA-03’s Representative Dwight Evans.
Oops.
Once upon a time Brian Fitzpatrick actually had been endorsed by the LCV. But the LCV were vocal supporters of the Inflation Reduction Act and its generational climate initiatives. At the time the bill passed the House their Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Tiernan Sittenfeld released a statement that praised the passage of the bill, but closed by saying:
“We’ll ensure that every Republican who voted against this bill is held accountable for prioritizing polluters and corporate special interests over the health and well being of their constituents.”
Additionally, the LCV added in their legislative scorecard:
“The Inflation Reduction Act is the single largest, transformational investment in climate solutions and environmental justice in U.S. history. As a result, LCV has made the decision to double-score this vote, a rarely used practice employed only for landmark bills.”
And Brian Fitzpatrick was one of those Republican lawmakers who voted against the Inflation Reduction Act, so he had to know there would be repercussions to his vote. It seems that he didn’t much care about that, and instead decided to lie to his constituents and say that the LCV still endorsed him – even though they have not done so.
In case you are feeling deja vu hearing this story, you are not crazy. Because this is not the first time that Brian Fitzpatrick claimed support from a group that did not endorse him. Back in 2018, Brian Fitzpatrick claimed that he was endorsed by the Humane Society, and his giant signs proclaiming this used the logo of the charity arm of the Humane Society … except it is illegal for a charity to endorse any lawmaker or to use their funds for political purposes.
The situation got so heated that the Humane Society website added a special section on their FAQ page to tell folks that they had not endorsed Fitzpatrick.
Those of us who keep a close eye on politics have gotten used to the undeniable fact that Brian Fitzpatrick’s carefully constructed image differs greatly from the reality of his representation. He just keeps finding new lows.
He refuses to hold open town halls.
He runs away from reporters attempting to seek comment on any issue of consequence.
And now he is lying to his constituents on his signage.
Since Brian Fitzpatrick has left no question about his lack of ethics, the only open issue raised by this incident is whether or not local media in Bucks County will hold him to account for this offense.
Back in 2018, when the Bucks County Courier Times was under different management, they did cover Fitzpatrick’s Humane Society debacle with an article (even though any critical coverage from staff writers was still rare).
But in recent years, under new management, the Bucks County news outlets like the Courier Times and the Bucks County Herald (now run by the Courier’s former right-wing editorial page editor) have shied away from anything political, failing to report on the newsworthy events like Brian Fitzpatrick’s Speaker of the House votes, or even the fact that the head of the Bucks County Republican Party was a false elector here in Pennsylvania in 2020.
So the real questions this time around are:
Will the news outlets owned by Gannett report on this latest Brian Fitzpatrick scandal? Or will they once again act as a Deputy Communications outpost for the Fitzpatrick campaign and smooth over yet more shady behavior from our so-called representative?
Hey Gannett? The ball is in your court.
We did the research for you. Are you going to share this NEWS in your newspaper?
