Battle ‘10 reported yesterday on Democrat Bryan Lentz accepting $9,400 in donations over the past year from Lee and Sydelle Blatt. Mr. Blatt founded an aerospace, medical, and defense parts company that was brought to court in 2006 on charges of defrauding the military. Pat Meehan prosecuted the case. Meehan is today, of course, Lentz’s Republican opponent in the battle for the 7th district congressional seat being vacated by Congressman Joe Sestak.
At issue is whether the Lentz campaign would return the Blatt contributions.
Kevin McTigue, campaign manager for Bryan Lentz, spoke with Battle ‘10 and made it clear they saw nothing dodgy about accepting the donation.
“There are all kinds of people who donate for all kinds of reasons,” said McTigue. “We don’t see this any differently than the more than $130,000 in donations that Pat Meehan received from allies of Vince Fumo, who he prosecuted.”
“Or the $12,200 in donations he accepted from convicted felon Robert Asher and his wife,” McTigue continued, “or the contributions he took from convicted felon Joseph Loeper or from Ernie Preate, who’s campaign he managed, who is also a felon.”
The Meehan campaign, for its part, pushed back on the idea of dodgy-donor equivalence.
Virginia Davis, Meehan communications director, told Battle ‘10 that “the folks that donated to Pat Meehan did so because they support Pat Meehan, not out of spite like in the instance of Mr. Blatt giving nearly $10,000 to Bryan Lentz.”
Davis characterized the contribution as a proxy effort against Meehan for his part in prosecuting Blatt’s company.
“This was a vindictive donation,” said Davis, “by a man who clearly has no remorse for his reprehensible actions to defraud the military.”