The Denny Heck for Congress campaign issued a statement recently attacking Jaime Herrera for signing the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The attack is almost identical to the misleading claims made by a number of Democrat candidates and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. These claims have been thoroughly discredited by a number of sources including Factcheck.org and Jon Ralston, a leading political pundit in Nevada. Factcheck.org found the claims to be “blatantly false” while Jon Ralston agreed that the accusations were “thoroughly misleading.”

The Pledge is a commitment made by the signer to his/her future constituents to vote against tax hikes and to promote pro-growth economic policies. It appears that Denny Heck’s only solution to a struggling economy and an unemployment rate of almost ten percent is tax hikes.

For ATR’s official statement on Denny Heck’s misleading claims about the Pledge, click “read more.”

 Denny Heck Campaign Caught Telling Lies about the “No New Taxes” Pledge
Heck campaign desperate to distort Herrera’s “no new taxes” promise

WASHINGTON, DC—The Denny Heck Campaign recently launched a new line of attack on Jaime Herrera by attempting to mislead voters about the actual meaning of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. The goal of the Pledge is to protect taxpayers and businesses from tax increases. The Heck campaign’s charges follow the patently false claims made by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) earlier in the year – claims that the non-partisan FactCheck.org agrees are “blatantly false.”

The “No New Taxes” Pledge commits a signer to “oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses and oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.” By making this promise, Herrera has taken tax hikes off the table for all taxpayers in Washington- something Denny Heck has not done.

This is not the first time Democrats have tried to misrepresent the meaning of the Pledge. During the special election in HI-01, the DCCC ran misleading attack ads against the Pledge. FactCheck.org, a non-partisan "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics, responded by condemning the DCCC and agreeing that the ads were “blatantly false.”

Similar claims about the Pledge were made recently in Michigan and Nevada. In Michigan, the Jackson Citizen-Patriot, a Jackson, Michigan newspaper, deemed Rep. Mark Schauer’s claims about the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and Tim Walberg to be “not true.”  In Nevada, Jon Ralston of Face to Face and the Las Vegas Review-Journal “realty checked” the Dina Titus campaign ad and found the claims made about the “no new taxes” Pledge to be “thoroughly misleading.”

“Clearly Denny Heck is scared to debate Jaime Herrera on the issues. Otherwise, why would his campaign go out of its way to shamelessly distort her position on taxes? The Pledge signed by Herrera is a promise to constituents and businesses to never raise taxes. Heck has yet to make the same promise and should explain to voters how tax hikes revive a struggling economy and promote job growth in Washington,” said ATR President Grover Norquist.

“Jaime Herrera has committed to never raising taxes on her constituents while her Democrat opponent has left the door for tax hikes wide open,” continued Norquist.

Click here for a pdf version of the release.

Posted by Adam Radman on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 3:53 PM EDT

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