Rothfus Takes No Franking Pledge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2010

CONTACT: Stephanie Miller
Campaign Manager
412-915-8562

Rothfus Takes No Franking Pledge 

Today, 4^th District Congressional candidate Keith Rothfus pledged that if elected, he would not send any mass-mail communication to constituents at taxpayer expense.  This is the process known as “franking”.  This announcement comes on the heels of incumbent Congressman Jason Altmire sending numerous taxpayer-paid mail pieces to citizens of the district (see link to release from last week below).

“While some mail certainly must be sent by members of Congress to their constituents, I find it appalling that Congressman Altmire spends almost two-and-a-half times as much on this as the average member of Congress from Pennsylvania.  It is troubling that Congressman Altmire would send out numerous pieces of mail at taxpayer expense so clearly designed to communicate a campaign message.  If you simply add the words “vote for” to these mailings, they would be pretty good campaign pieces.  A message like this should be paid for by a campaign committee, not by the taxpayers”, said Rothfus. 

“That is why today I pledge, that if elected, I will only send taxpayer-financed mail for regular office communication and to answer specific citizen questions and requests. I ask Congressman Altmire to make the same pledge to the citizens of the 4^th District,” Rothfus continued. “The practice of sending tax-payer financed campaign pieces by members of Congress simply must come to an end.  We owe it to the taxpayers to spend their hard-earned tax money on necessary projects and programs, not on campaign re-election pieces.  This is simply unacceptable and it is time Jason Altmire stops campaigning on the taxpayer dime,” Rothfus concluded.

According to House Document No. 111-86 Statement of Disbursements of the House as compiled by the Chief Administrative Officer, Congressman Altmire spent $104,137 on franked mail incalendar year 2009.  This figure is only the amount spent on “franked” postage and does not include the cost to taxpayers of printing the pieces.

This amount ranked Altmire second in the Pennsylvania congressional delegation for the amount of mail sent at taxpayer expense in 2009.  It was also nearly two-and-a-half times more than the average amount spent by the individual members of the Pennsylvania delegation (see link to breakdown below). 

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To view a list of Pennsylvania Members of Congress and the 2009 Franking Expenditures Click Here

To View Altmire's Political mailings, please Click Here

For last week's release, Click Here

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Citizens for Rothfus
P.O. Box 259,
Allison Park, PA 15101
keithpa4.com