The short answer: he’s talking.

So, I went away for a week. And when I came back, I found that Tom Gannon had sunk to new personal lows in the PA-161 state house race. (Lentz campaign’s response is here.)

The ads from Gannon are despicable. But my gut tells me not to worry too much. If Gannon wants to take on a notoriously aggressive former prosecutor on crime, I’ll take those odds. Lentz has the voice, the team, the friends, and the cash to defend his substantive record. (UPDATE- I’m sure he would want me to mention that more cash would REALLY help.)

Here’s the most telling part of the Inquirer story by Mari A. Schaefer:
“Gannon would not say whether he approved the ad.”

Oh really Mr. Gannon? Let’s do a little forensic investigation of the circumstantial evidence.

• September 14th– Tom Gannon sends out a postcard to constituents advertising October meetings in Brookhaven and Ridley on the topic of internet child predators.
• September 21st– The HRCC makes a “Willie Horton” attack on Lentz, claiming he helped an accused child predator as an attorney. [emph. mine.] Gannon doesn’t take responsibility for the ad.
• September 22nd– Advertisements hit email accounts of PA-161 constitutents calling Lentz unfit for office on the basis of his involvement in the case. The emails come from votetomgannon.com, Gannon’s campaign website.
• September 26th– Another email advertisement sent out re-iterating the attack. Again the ad is from Gannon’s campaign site.

This was a long-planned attack, and obviously coordinated by Gannon’s campaign.

Here’s something that’s interesting, though. Both the emails of September 22 and 26th are sent with two incorrect email addresses for my wife. (They attempt to CC her at my employer’s domain, where she doesn’t have an account.) Since January 1, 2006, I have received at least seven other messages with exactly the same incorrect addresses, in exactly the same configuration. (2/14, 7/14, 7/21, two on 7/24, 8/9, 9/1)

They were all from Tom Gannon’s legislative office.

So, remember when you sign up to be kept posted by your legislator’s activitiy, he’s going to use that information for personal, political purposes. He will share it with his party’s election campaign committee.