Firefighters from across Pennsylvania are rallying behind Congressional candidate Bob Brooks (D) and condemning attacks from Republicans falsely accusing him of misusing funds for a fallen firefighters memorial in Harrisburg. According to the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association (PPFFA), all funding for the memorial has been accounted for.
“Using our memorial to Pennsylvania’s fallen firefighters for a political attack just weeks before an election is a dirty tactic, plain and simple,” Lou Jimenez, president of Bethlehem Firefighters International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 735, said in a statement Tuesday.
Related: Bob Brooks didn’t start the DC dumpster fire. He wants to put it out
Leaders from 10 Pennsylvania IAFF chapters from across the commonwealth issued statements calling out Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s (R-Lehigh) campaign and its allies for using the memorial as a last-minute political prop to attack Brooks.
Jimenez added, “These are our brothers and sisters who gave their lives serving others. Some of our members knew the firefighters who will be honored there. Their families deserve respect, and their sacrifice deserves to be honored without being dragged into election politics. Have enough decency to keep our fallen firefighters out of it.”
Brooks is a retired firefighter who served with the city of Bethlehem for 20 years and is currently president of the PPFFA, which represents over 7,000 firefighters and first responders throughout the commonwealth.
The allegations were first reported in Broad and Liberty, a conservative media outlet, after Glenn Geissinger, Chair of the Northampton County Republican Committee, sent referral letters to the US Department of Justice, the Pennsylvania attorney general, and the Northampton County district attorney seeking to investigate Brooks over the memorial and allegations that he lied on an application for a $15,000 COVID-19 grant.
“Neither Congressman Mackenzie nor his campaign have commented on reporting that Brooks allegedly lied on tax statements in his role as [Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association] President, but it is revealing that the Brooks Campaign will not comment on Brooks’ alleged covid fraud,” Andres Weller, Mackenzie’s campaign manager said in a statement.
Geissinger alleges that Brooks misused state grants for the construction of a fallen firefighters memorial, which held a groundbreaking ceremony earlier this month.
“Pennsylvania is finally building its first permanent memorial to those who didn’t make it home, and Ryan Mackenzie is disgustingly using it as an 11th hour campaign prop,” Jeremy Warmkessel, president of Allentown Firefighters IAFF Local 302, said in a statement.
“It’s a disgrace to our fallen brothers and sisters and to every family they left behind. Congressman Mackenzie should call off his people today.”
The cost of the project is expected to exceed the amount of grant money received from the state, according to the PPFFA.
What is Bob Brooks’ plan to bring jobs to the Lehigh Valley?
“I think it’s pretty clear that the Republican Party, that the Mackenzie campaign would love to see an investigation for any and all of these matters undertaken or announced during the home stretch of a very contested campaign,” Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Lehigh University, said in an interview.
“There’s no doubt they see political advantage in that. That’s why they’re calling for it.”
While calls for politically motivated investigations are nothing new, Borick warned about an increase in the current era, when President Donald Trump is using federal agencies to go after political opponents.
“The idea that we’re going to be opening investigations into matters that, in this case, were claimed to have occurred years ago, in the last few weeks of a campaign, seems to be a little different,” Borick said.
“The real interesting thing to me would be if these demands were acted on at the end. I think then we might be moving into some very different waters.”
