FACT CHECK OF FREEDOM PARTNERS LATEST MCGINTY ATTACK AD: Koch Brothers Shamelessly Push Long-Debunked Claims To Prop-Up Pat

FACT: Toomey Voted with Koch Brothers’ Agenda – the Funders of Freedom Partners – 100 Percent of the Time Toomey Profits From Millions From Koch Brothers After Voting For Their Agenda 100 Percent of the Time. In January 2016, Bloomberg reported that Koch brothers network organizations spent $2.4 million touting Toomey’s record in 2015. In 2015, Toomey voted with Koch’s Americans for Prosperity 100 percent of the time his lifetime score is 96 percent. In 2014, the Koch brothers created super PAC Freedom Partners Action Fund.

[Bloomberg,

1/28/16;

AFP Scorecard, accessed

4/27/16;

Politico,

6/16/14]

Koch Brothers Have Spent Over $5 Million Backing Toomey This Cycle

Alone. [Open Secrets, accessed  8/31/16]

Attack’s Like Freedom Partners’ Have Been Called “Misleading, “Distorted,” Inaccurate

FactCheck.org: Attack “Twists the Facts,” is “Misleading,” Full of “Distorted Accusations.” FactCheck.org wrote: “An ad attacking the Democrats’ nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania claims she ‘gave millions in grants to her husband’s company’ while working for the state, and that the couple ‘pocketed thousands.’ That twists the facts.” They went on to call the claim a “misleading ad,” stating: “At the end of the ad, the actress portraying McGinty is shown wearing a fur coat and clutching an envelope stuffed with cash. “Katie McGinty has no shame,” the narrator says. We might say the same about those who produce such distorted accusations. Club for Growth Action has flubbed this one.” [FactCheck.org,

5/05/16]

Morning Call: Ethics Panel Never Found that McGinty was “Involved in the Money Going to [Her Husband’s] Employer.” “Toomey’s ad describes the Ethics Commission opinion as if it was a ruling on her actions specifically – when it was actually an advisory opinion. The panel never found that the grants should not have gone to her husband’s employer or that she was intimately involved in the money going to his employer, which also had received state money under previous administrations.” [Morning Call,

6/02/16]

FactCheck.org: Grants “Didn’t Go to Any ‘Company’ Owned or Controlled by McGinty’s Husband.” “The ad’s claim refers to grants made by McGinty’s office when she served as Pennsylvania’s secretary of environmental protection from 2003 to 2008. But the ‘millions in grants’ didn’t go to any ‘company’ owned or controlled by McGinty’s husband, Karl Hausker, as the ad claims. Rather, they went to the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, which is a nonprofit public charity.” [FactCheck.org,

5/05/16]

FactCheck.org: “The Grants Went to a Public Charity, Which Her Husband Didn’t Control.” “The grants went to a public charity, which her husband didn’t control. That nonprofit paid him less than $4,000 for work on a project to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. The misleading ad from Club for Growth Action attacks Katie McGinty.” [FactCheck.org,

5/05/16]

Newsworks: Claim that McGinty Gave Grants to Her Husband’s Company is Inaccurate. “The Club for Growth ad’s claim that when McGinty was in government, she ‘gave millions in grants to her husband’s company’ is inaccurate. There was a 2007 controversy (fueled in part by Republicans in the legislature) about her department funding an environmental nonprofit her husband did consulting work for, and the state ethics commission said she should avoid any role in future grants. But her husband’s earnings, less than $4,000, were a tiny fraction of the funding, which began under a Republican governor.” [Newsworks,

5/05/16]

FACT: Editorial Boards Have Praised McGinty for Taking Environmental Credentials into Private Sector Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: McGinty “Took Her Environmental Credentials Into an Industry That Could Benefit from Having an Environmental Advocate.”  “U.S. Senate candidate Katie McGinty’s broad environmental experience in government and industry means she has the ability to understand energy policy from all perspectives.  […] If her critics are to be believed, Ms. McGinty should have shut herself in a locked room or taken a job in an industry in which she had no expertise once she left government. Instead, she took her environmental credentials into an industry that could benefit from having an environmental advocate on the inside…She owes no apologies for the path she has walked.”

[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial,

11/18/15]

FACT: Wall Street is Sen. Toomey’s Biggest Contributor After He Spent Years Working in the Industry and Fighting to Deregulate It.

Toomey Spent Years Working For Wall Street Banks. “Toomey worked for two banks on Wall Street from 1984 to 1990, Chemical Bank and Morgan Grenfell. He traded the complex financial instruments known as derivatives, focusing on those dealing with currency and

interest rates.” [Los Angeles Times,

9/17/10]

In Congress, Toomey Backed Legislation That “Helped Set the Stage for the Financial Crisis.” “After arriving in Congress in 1999, Toomey supported broad, bipartisan legislation, signed by President Clinton, to repeal the Depression-era law that separated commercial banks and investment banks. A year later, Toomey also supported legislation that prevented federal officials from regulating most over-the-counter derivatives. Some experts have said those two laws helped set the stage for the financial crisis.” [Los Angeles Times,

9/17/10]

And Said Wall Street Reform Should “Absolutely” Be Repealed. RCP: “Do you think Dodd-Frank ought to be repealed?” Toomey: “Yes, absolutely. I think Dodd-Frank actually probably increases the risk of failure of the large financial institutions. I think it’s enormously expensive and complicated.” [Real Clear Politics,

6/23/11]

Wall Street is Sen. Toomey’s Top Contributing Industry. Open Secrets reports that the securities and investment industry has contributed $2,582,443 to Toomey while commercial banks have contributed $703,214, making it his top contributing industry.

[OpenSecrets, accessed

4/27/16,

4/27/16]