A day after Kathleen Peters called David Jolly a "hypocrite" for criticizing Obamacare while allegedly profiting from it, the Pinellas County state representative was back on the attack on Friday, issuing out a press release entitled, "Got Transparency?"
In the release, Peters calls on Jolly, her main Congressional District 13 Republican challenger in next month's primary election, to provide a full accounting of who and what he lobbied for and how much he was compensated from 2007 to 2013.
“David Jolly is willing to do anything and say anything to get elected,” Peters said. "While millions of Americans were suffering during the financial meltdown, David Jolly sold himself to the highest bidder as a special interest lobbyist from 2007 to 2013.”
But Team Jolly isn't exactly cowering.
[jump]"This is continued nonsense after a public belly flop of a press conference yesterday," replied Jolly spokesperson Sarah Bascom. "She made erroneous claims that even members of the media said she could not back up."
As CL and other media outlets reported on Thursday, Peters asserted that Jolly's firm had lobbied for Faneuil, which is running a call center in Spokane, Washington that would provide help to people signing up for Obamacare.
But Team Jolly and the CEO of Faneuil denied the claim, saying that he had lobbied for the company in 2011 and 2012 on transportation issues — not health care. Faneuil did not sign a contract to begin lobbying for Obamacare in Spokane until March of 2013.
"She can check public disclosures, just like anyone can," added Bascom. "The question will be if she does so, will she continue to distort what she finds?"
In a second email response, Bascom wrote, "My comment would be Got Google? All of this is in online and in public record."
During Thursday's press conference at which she accused Jolly of profiting from the Affordable Care Act, members of her campaign distributed financial compensation reports showing that Jolly's company, Three Bridge Advisors, had lobbied on behalf of Faenuil to the tune of over $80,000, but did not state what the lobbying was actually for. When asked about that at the press conference, Peters challenged reporters to dig further.
Her one-two attack comes after Jolly himself started the argument over who was softer on the Affordable Care Act, a toxic issue among Republicans. Peters has not definitively stated that she would repeal the controversial law (which House Republicans have done more than 40 times over the past couple of years to absolutely no avail) without a viable alternative. Jolly has seized on her less than full-throated denunciation of the legislation, and accused her of being in the same camp as Alex Sink, the Democrat whom the winner will face in the March 11 primary.
A recent poll has Peters down by nearly five percentage pointsto Jolly in the race to nominate a Republican to succeed the late Bill Young, who died in late October after serving the largely Pinellas County district for over four decades.