Those hoping to hear the candidates for the 7th Congressional District share a debate stage will have to alter their sights, as Democrat Bob Brooks announced that he will not participate in a previously-scheduled forum with incumbent GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.
The debate was slated for Wednesday as part of WFMZ-TV’s “Business Matters” program with Tony Iannelli.
Brooks has been embroiled with Mackenzie over the Republican’s ads that the challenger has called false and defamatory.
The ad, titled “Criminal Offense,” falsely claims Brooks “violated state law” by failing to carry workers’ compensation insurance for his employees, and that those employees lost coverage,” said the campaign in a statement. “That claim is false and defamatory: Bob did not violate state law. Bob had no employees during the time in question. For the entire period the ad points to, November 30, 2017 through December 28, 2021, the only person working for Brooks Lawn Care was Bob Brooks. The last employee stopped working on September 30, 2017, two months before the policy lapsed.”
The letter, sent by Brooks’ campaign counsel James C. Lamb of Sandler Reiff, demanded that Mackenzie and the NRCC pull the ad, post a retraction, and confirm in writing by 9:30 a.m. Monday.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that “Pennsylvania law requires businesses to have a workers’ compensation policy in most cases in which the business has at least one employee. A story in July from the Washington Free Beacon claimed Brooks appeared to violate that requirement for at least two years. It referred primarily to a LinkedIn page for Brooks’ son that stated he worked at the company and managed others during years Brooks did not have an insurance policy.
Brooks’ lawyer, however, wrote there were no other employees at the company during that period besides Brooks. The last employee stopped working for Brooks Lawn Care two months before the policy lapsed in November 2017, making it a sole proprietorship that was not required to have the policy, the lawyer wrote in the letter obtained by The Inquirer.”
The Mackenzie campaign disagrees, saying that “as recently as three weeks ago, Brooks’ son reported managing “six man crews” during his time at Brooks Lawn Care and gaining “60 new customers within the first year.” Those claims were recently scrubbed from the page, but Brooks’ son continues to report working at the company during the period in question — directly contradicting the claims of Bob Brooks and his attorneys.”
“The same Bob Brooks who stole from his family is now throwing his own son under the bus to shield himself,” said Mackenzie for Congress Campaign Manager Andres Weller. “By claiming that he did not have any employees during the period in which he failed to purchase workers’ compensation coverage, Bob Brooks is calling his son a liar and accusing him of fabricating his resume. Bob’s willingness to repeatedly betray his own family members is absolutely disgusting.”
The Brooks campaign fired back.
“For months, Ryan Mackenzie has leveled outright lies against 20-year firefighter Bob Brooks that go completely outside of the bounds of acceptable campaign rhetoric,” the campaign said in a statement. “His attacks have become so deranged in his final acts of desperation that he has stooped to begging Trump’s DOJ to weaponize the justice system and politically prosecute Bob just weeks out from the election. His ads have been so nakedly dishonest that he has been sent a cease and desist for a recent ad riddled with blatant lies, but he has refused to comply. And just this morning, Mackenzie and his allies crossed a red line, denigrating the brave men and women of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, the Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial, and every firefighter and first responder who has paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep their community safe.
“This entire campaign, Bob has been relentlessly focused on the substance of Mackenzie’s votes and policy, and he is more than happy to debate ideas with Mackenzie any day of the week. In light of Mackenzie’s failure to abide by the cease and desist and unending defamatory rhetoric, including a disgraceful attack just today on Bob’s son, Bob informed WFMZ today that he will not give a platform for Mackenzie to continue to spread outright lies on television.”
The Brooks campaign indicated it had communicated with WFMZ that he would be willing to do a one-on-one interview with Iannelli, but the station declined and canceled the event.
Republicans pounced on Brooks’ decision.
“Feckless Bob Brooks knows he can’t defend his record or personal history, so he’s running away scared from Wednesday’s debate against Congressman Ryan Mackenzie,” said National Republican Congressional Campaign spokesman Reilly Richardson. “Lehigh Valley voters deserve to hear from their candidates, but unfortunately Brooks is too terrified to face them.”
The Brooks campaign pointed out in its statement that its candidate has done October interviews with WFMZ, WCAU and KYW in Philadelphia, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and PBS and MS NOW.
Mackenzie did agree to sit down with PoliticsPA for an interview on our podcast, Voices of Reason. The Brooks campaign did not respond to our invitation for the Democrat to appear separately on the pod.
The matchup in the Lehigh Valley’s 7th Congressional District has become the most expensive fall congressional race in Pennsylvania, with $29 million in ads promoting and attacking the candidates since August, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact.
This story may be updated.
