{"id":23686,"date":"2014-10-27T14:55:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T18:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23686"},"modified":"2014-10-27T14:55:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T18:55:19","slug":"schott-lawrence-trade-barbs-over-outreach-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=23686","title":{"rendered":"Schott, Lawrence trade barbs over outreach spending"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democrat cites excessive event spending, Republican says numbers ‘cherry picked’<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"13thissue\"<\/a>

13th District State House candidates Ann Schott (left) and John Lawrence are sparring over how much Lawrence spent on community outreach events such as senior expos and paper shredding events.<\/p><\/div>\n

The two candidates for State Representative in the 13th District are sparring over how much State Rep. John Lawrence (R-13) has spent on community outreach \u2014 a number his Democratic opponent, Ann Schott claims is excessive.<\/p>\n

Schott called on Lawrence to explain more than $7,100 in expenses related to various community events the state representative has held. Schott cited numbers from a Right To Know request originally filed by the Scranton Times-Tribune.<\/p>\n

“This is yet another example of Mr. Lawrence’s campaign rhetoric not matching reality,” Schott said.\u00a0“The results of this reporting are deeply concerning to me, both as a candidate and as a resident of Mr. Lawrence\u2019s district.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times-Tribune report suggested that Lawrence was the top spender in the Chester and Lancaster county areas on community outreach events, such as paper-shredding events and community expos.<\/p>\n

But a number of other local State Representatives, such as Steve Barrar (R-160) and Duane Milne (R-167) have held similar events in recent months (and have done so for a number of years) which would appear to put the accuracy of the numbers in question \u2014 as an example, while Lawrence was said to have spent $7,143.63 on such events, it said Barrar \u2014 who holds at least two such events yearly \u2014 spent only $215.34.<\/p>\n

Lawrence took issue with the numbers, suggesting they were not a true representation of spending of other state representatives and that the numbers were selectively chosen, and therefore an unfair attack. He also defended the need to have some expenditures to reach out to and inform constituents.\u00a0 and that it was being made into a campaign issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most important things any Representative can do is responsibly communicate with and assist the people\u00a0they represent,\u201d Lawrence said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThat is why I focus\u00a0the limited spending\u00a0out of my office on that area, including the annual Senior Expo in Oxford which provides a significant service to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of taking real issues, Lawrence said, Schott, a recently retired and long-time teacher at Unionville High School, \u00a0is attempting to confuse voters with a trumped-up issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, in a desperate attempt one week before an election,\u00a0the Schott campaign has released cherrypicked data with significant inaccuracies in an attempt to paint my office as fiscally irresponsible,\u201d Lawrence said.\u00a0 \u201cThis is disappointing and unfortunate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would welcome a factual debate with my opponent, both on the fiscal responsibility\u00a0personally practiced for the past four years, and on the important issues facing the\u00a0Commonwealth.”<\/p>\n

Still, Schott campaign officials said they feel Lawrence needs to be held responsible for his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unconscionable that Mr. Lawrence would spend our tax dollars in this way,” said Cindy Losco, co-chair of the Schott campaign. \u201c$7,000 is real money — it would allow a deserving local student to complete a semester of college, or allow a local district to restore a student club or athletic program that was lost in the wake of the Corbett\/Lawrence cuts to schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

An analysis of Lawrence’s spending by the Schott campaign revealed nearly $200<\/p>\n

for ice cream dispensed at Oxford First Fridays, more than $1,600 to publicize paper-shredding, and $4,428 for food.<\/p>\n

“Certainly, state legislators have an obligation to help residents understand the issues, but this appears to be an abuse of the system,” Schott said.\u00a0\u201cWhile Mr. Lawrence is dishing out taxpayer-funded ice cream, local school teachers and parents are reaching into their own pockets to purchase basic classroom supplies.\u00a0 We need to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence said he feels the charges are unmerited and that he and his staff have run one of the most frugal and transparent state representative offices in southeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

“For the past four years in office, I have\u00a0worked very hard to be fiscally responsible and accountable to the people of Southern Chester County,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cAs promised, my office\u00a0posts all expenses online for\u00a0anyone to review unlike many\u00a0Republican and Democrat members of the House.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also notes that he has refused many of the perks and expenses his colleagues routinely accept, saving thousands of dollars a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have declined\u00a0to accept a\u00a0taxpayer-funded state pension, saving the taxpayers of\u00a0Pennsylvania both now and in the future,\u201d Lawrence said.\u00a0 \u201cIn addition, I have declined to accept \u2018per-diem\u2019 payments\u00a0for expenses, saving taxpayers over\u00a0$17,000\u00a0over\u00a0the past two years.\u00a0Many Republican and\u00a0Democrat legislators\u00a0accept these tax-free\u00a0per diems to pad their salary,\u00a0a practice which I have\u00a0repeatedly stated should end immediately.\u00a0Also, I\u00a0do not accept a state car, a state cell phone, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence said he felt the attack was unfair, as he spends far less than many of his colleagues on multi-thousand dollar mailings \u2014 and less even than his predecessors, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, many\u00a0members of the House, again on both sides of the aisle,\u00a0send out\u00a0multiple four-color, glossy, campaign-style mailers at taxpayer expense repeatedly through the year,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cMy predecessor in the House used to send out frequent color flyers in the mail with his campaign logo printed on them at taxpayer expense. In an effort to be fiscally responsible and\u00a0keep the people I serve up to date, I send out one\u00a0newsletter per year, and an occasional postcard announcing town hall meetings or\u00a0another\u00a0similar event.\u00a0All of these mail pieces are printed in black and white with one color, again to save costs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrat cites excessive event spending, Republican says numbers ‘cherry picked’ By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times The two candidates for State Representative in the 13th District are sparring over how much State Rep. John Lawrence (R-13) has spent on community outreach \u2014 a number his Democratic opponent, Ann Schott claims is excessive. Schott called on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[2139,6307,4444,3095,6308],"class_list":["post-23686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-13th-district","tag-ann-schott","tag-election-2014","tag-john-lawrence","tag-outreach-spending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23687,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23686\/revisions\/23687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}