Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Liberal groups push back on GOP tactics in special election
Watching the TV ads attacking Democrat Conor Lamb, you’d think the special-election candidate in the 18th Congressional District was joined at the hip with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. But it’s his rival, Republican state Rep. Rick Saccone, who appears most publicly with his party’s leaders. And some upstart liberal groups are trying to raise a fuss about it. This week, the Democratic-friendly American Democracy Legal Fund asked the Government Accounting Office to review President Donald Trump’s visit Jan. 18 to a North Fayette equipment shop, questioning if it amounted to a campaign stop on the taxpayers’ account.
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“There are a number of areas in which [Mr. Trump] is pushing the envelope,” said Lawrence Noble, the general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. Tweeting is one of them. “It sounds like at the event itself, he only made a passing reference [to Mr. Saccone],” he said. “But by tweeting about it, he creates a framework where it seems campaign-related.”