“Eugene DePasquale grew up knowing the meaning of hard work and the worry everyday families experience when faced with unexpected medical bills. That’s why he has spent his career fighting for Pennsylvanians – from rooting out waste and corruption in government to advocating for working- and middle-class families during the current pandemic. That could not stand in sharper contrast to entrenched politician Scott Perry, who has made a career in Washington adhering to an extreme ideology over delivering for his constituents. With his proven ability to win in this district, I look forward to welcoming Eugene DePasquale to Congress next year.” – DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos
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To: Interested Parties
From: Courtney Rice, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: June 5, 2020
Subject: The Case Against Scott Perry
Congressman Scott Perry went to Washington and hasn’t stopped saying ‘no’ to his constituents since he arrived. Perry has said ‘no’ to workers earning a living wage, ‘no’ to expanding access to affordable health care and lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and ‘no’ to giving working- and middle-class families a tax break. A do-nothing Congressman, Perry has spent his political career more concerned with saying ‘yes’ to an extreme Washington ideology, as an early member of the House Freedom Caucus, than delivering for central Pennsylvania.
Eugene DePasquale’s record couldn’t be more different. As Auditor General, Eugene’s mission is to fight for Pennsylvanians and hold powerful interests accountable to everyday people, regardless of political party. He’s safeguarded municipal pension plans, ensured taxpayer money is being spent properly in schools, and significantly cut down the rape kit backlog in the state from 3,000 to less than 100. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Eugene’s work has only increased. He’s called for ventilator manufacturers to release their repair manuals in an effort to help hospitals and launched an audit into Democratic Governor Wolf’s business waiver program to ensure that the waivers were fairly distributed.
Eugene’s story is the story of the 10th District. He grew up in a working-class family where his parents owned a neighborhood bar. His father, a Vietnam War veteran, struggled with addiction to pain killers that he was prescribed to cope with his injuries. His youngest brother was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and the family struggled to afford treatment and was eventually left with a pile of medical bills. Because of his upbringing, Eugene will never put loyalty to a party over delivering results for the district – he knows the stakes are too important.
DePasquale has already won here: he carried the 10th District in his 2016 reelection for Auditor General, the same year Trump won the district by 9 points. Thanks to his cross-party appeal and his heightened name ID from his work as Auditor General, DePasquale is in a strong position to unseat Congressman Perry in November.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
HEADLINE: Perry campaign was one of many to pay controversial GOP fundraiser. “As a prominent GOP fundraiser was formulating plans to capitalize off of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry had him on the payroll as a consultant.” [York Dispatch, 04/21/20]
TOSS UP: “Democratic operatives are ecstatic they’ve landed their dream candidate against GOP Rep. Scott Perry, who eked out a 51 percent win against Democratic minister George Scott in 2018. In 2016, DePasquale carried the Harrisburg/York-based 10th CD by two points in his race for reelection as state auditor while President Trump carried the district by nine points on the same ballot. […] The son of Pittsburgh bar owners also tells a riveting personal story of overcoming his father serving nine years in prison for dealing cocaine and losing a brother who had muscular dystrophy.” [Cook Political Report, 10/25/19]
#1 MOST VULNERABLE IN PENNSYLVANIA: “DePasquale is a proven winner statewide; in fact, when he won his office in 2016, he won the current district even as Donald Trump was winning both the district and the state.” [PoliticsPA, 04/15/20]
HEADLINE: GOP congressman brags about voting against his party but votes with Trump 95%. [American Independent, 02/24/20]
HEADLINE: Auditor General DePasquale Announces 10 Audits to Protect Taxpayers, Older Adults and People with Disabilities. [MyChesCo, 02/19/20]
HEADLINE: Auditor General Eugene DePasquale plans audit of Wolf Administration’s COVID-19 business waiver program. [PennLive, 04/30/20]
HEADLINE: Pennsylvania’s backlog of 3,000 untested rape kits now under 100, auditor general says. [PennLive, 05/06/20]
Scott Perry: An Ineffective, Extremist Politician Who Doesn’t Represent The Values Of The District
AN ENTRENCHED POLITICIAN MORE CONCERNED WITH POLITICAL IDEOLOGY THAN DELIVERING FOR THE DISTRICT
Congressman Scott Perry has always put adherence to an extreme, partisan ideology over working for residents in the 10th District. That’s why he joined the obstructionist House Freedom Caucus within six months of its founding and why he made a bid for Chair of the Caucus following the 2018 election: where Pennsylvania is concerned, he’s spent his political career working to get to ‘no’ above anything else. As a reminder, the Freedom Caucus is known for obstruction – for example, they threatened to shut down the government under President Trump and Republican leadership over funding for the border wall and, through their influence, pushed the Republican health care bill further to the right because they felt didn’t do enough to repeal the ACA.
And just last month, Perry was ranked towards the bottom of a list of bipartisan members of Congress (at 349). Perry isn’t just extreme, he’s also ineffective. Since Perry was elected to Congress in 2012, only one bill he sponsored has become law – a bill that deals with managing the cars and trucks owned and leased by DHS.
Voters in the 10th District couldn’t have a clearer contrast with Eugene DePasquale. As Auditor General, DePasquale has rooted out corruption, held powerful special interests accountable, and fought for working class families in Pennsylvania. During his tenure, he reduced the state’s backlog of untested rape kits from 3,000 to under 100 and exposed a looming crisis in Pennsylvania’s nursing homes. That’s effectiveness that improves everyday people’s lives.
PERRY IS ANTI-WORKER
Congressman Perry’s record makes clear that he is anti-worker. During the 2018-2019 government shutdown, in response to concerns that workers wouldn’t have enough money to get by, Perry pondered “who’s living that they’re not going to make it to the next paycheck?” and stated that he didn’t think people would be seriously impacted by a shutdown because “any missed pay is eventually caught up.” His comments shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the district given Perry’s tone-deaf stances on the minimum wage, from saying that a nationwide minimum wage “doesn’t make sense” to complaining that “the problem with minimum wage is that everyone will want more.”
As the son of a Vietnam veteran and neighborhood bar owners, Eugene knows first-hand that the deck is stacked against many working-class families. As Auditor General, Eugene has worked to save Pennsylvania taxpayers money and he’ll continue to fight on behalf of working- and middle-class families in Congress.
PERRY VOTED TO MAKE PENNSYLVANIANS’ HEALTH CARE MORE EXPENSIVE
Ever since Congressman Perry was elected to Congress, he’s been attempting to take away Pennsylvanians’ access to affordable health care, comparing the Affordable Care Act – which guarantees young people can stay on their parent’s insurance until age 26 and that people with pre-existing conditions like asthma, cancer, or diabetes won’t be charged more or kicked off their insurance – to… ‘slavery and prohibition.’
Perry voted to gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions and access to affordable care by voting 12 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act and, despite the law’s growing popularity, Perry said his top priority as recently as November 2018 was to repeal and replace the ACA. If Perry had his way, 42,000 Pennsylvanians in the 10th District would be at risk of losing their health care coverage, in addition to the more than 800,000 Pennsylvanians who became eligible for Medicaid because of the ACA.
What’s worse, Perry admitted that he voted to eradicate protections for pre-existing conditions as part of ACA repeal, which could have negatively affected 300,900 Pennsylvanians in the 10th District with pre-existing conditions – and proudly stated that he doesn’t think he should pay for maternity care because he’s done having kids. Perry has also voted for plans to turn Medicare into a “voucher-like program” that the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare argued would leave “seniors and the disabled… hostage to the whims of private insurance companies.”
Unlike Perry, who mocks the significance of families having access to affordable care, Eugene grew up knowing just how important that access can be. In high school, Eugene’s youngest brother was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and, after a long battle, passed away, leaving Eugene to care for his family and deal with tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. That’s why, for him, protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions and affordable medicine is personal.
PATH TO VICTORY
Located in south-central Pennsylvania, the 10th Congressional District includes the cities of Harrisburg and York. In 2018, Congressman Scott Perry’s margin-of-victory was less than 3% of the major party vote. That same cycle, Senator Casey received 50.8% of the major party vote and Governor Wolf earned 55.3%.
As state Auditor General, serving in his second term, Democrat Eugene DePasquale has a heightened name ID from his weekly televised press conferences giving updates on audits that advocate for and prioritize working- and middle-class families across the state. DePasquale has already won the 10th District: in his 2016 statewide reelection, DePasquale carried the now-10th District, the same year that President Trump carried the district, by 9 points. Additionally, his 2016 win was a 4.8-point increase over his 2012 performance, 50.7% to 45.9%. To note, DePasquale also outpaced Secretary Clinton in Dauphin, York, and Cumberland counties in 2016.
Several counties in the district, such as Dauphin and Cumberland, have “see[n] a surge” of Democratic voters in the past year. This is no cakewalk, but with DePasquale’s nearly equal cash-on-hand, he’ll have the resources necessary to compete in this toss-up district.
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