Democrat Brien Poffenberger has hit Neil Parrott, Republican candidate for Maryland House District 2B, with four separate attack pieces in an attempt to mislead voters about the actual meaning of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. In a direct mail piece, Poffenberger argues that Parrott’s Pledge means he supports tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs. In reality, the goal of the Pledge is to protect taxpayers and businesses from tax increases, and does not prevent revenue-neutral elimination of tax credits.

The “No New Taxes” Pledge simply commits a signer to “oppose and vote against any and all efforts to raise taxes.” By making this promise, Parrott has taken tax hikes off the table for all taxpayers in Maryland – something Brien Poffenberger has not done.

Poffenberger also claims that ATR is a Washington, D.C. “special interest group” pushing a hidden agenda. ATR’s constituency – taxpayers – is not a special interest. ATR opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle. There is nothing hidden about the organization’s agenda.

False attacks on the tax pledge are part of a national Democrat narrative and began earlier this year, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran ads in Hawaii’s 1^st Congressional District making the same outsourcing attacks on Charles Djou. Nonpartisan FactCheck.org declared these attacks “blatantly false.” FactCheck.org recently ran another analysis concluding that attacks on the Pledge for state candidates “make even less sense.”

“It’s clearly desperation time for Brien Poffenberger and national Democrats,” said ATR President Grover Norquist. “Scrambling to elect more Martin O’Malley puppets to the Maryland House of Delegates, the Democratic party comes armed with a boatload of cash to distort and mislead voters about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.”

“Neil Parrott has promised to break with liberal Brien Poffenberger and oppose tax increases,” continued Norquist. “Rather than make the same simple promise, Poffenberger is sticking to his big government mantra and hoping national Democrats and their union allies can bail him out. In Maryland District 2B, voters have a clear choice this November between Neil Parrott’s fiscal responsibility and Brien Poffenberger’s tax-and-spend agenda.”

Posted by Joshua Culling on Thursday, October 21, 2010 5:35 PM EDT

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