Lou Barletta, making his third run against Paul Kanjorski, longtime Democrat incumbent in Pennsylvania’s 11th district, hit Kanjorski over the use of more than $25,000 for taxpayer-funded mailings and tele-town hall meetings that he says “amount to nothing more than a re-election campaign”.

The mailers, titled “Reining in Wall Street, restoring trust in the economy,” were sent out to constituents across the northeastern Pennsylvania district. They include the disclaimer that they were “prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense.”

Kanjorski, defending his mailers, said, “I use mailings and telephone town meetings to update my constituents on issues currently in Congress, my efforts to improve northeastern Pennsylvania and the country, and useful information for constituents.”

Kanjorski’s mailers may have been innocent enough, but either way Barletta’s quibble over them is not a reassuring sign of a campaign focused on substance over stunts.

And for the record, does anyone really believe those mailers from your Congressmen are ever a worthwhile expense? Aren’t they almost by nature as much a promotional tool as an “informational” one?