Kampf says opponents spread false accusations

WEST CHESTER >> Those opposed to reform of Pennsylvania’s workers compensation system are behind a series of negative political mailings sent to registered voters in Chester County accusing at least one incumbent lawmaker of misusing taxpayers dollars, according to a state representative who has asked a court to order the halt distribution of those messages.

On Friday, state Rep. Warren Kampf, R-157th Dist., filed a pe-

tition in Chester County Common Pleas Court seeking a restraining order against the Pennsylvania Fund for Change, which he asserted is spreading false information about his financial dealings with state funds.

The mailers in question attack Kampf for “living large on thousands of dollars in per-diems,” which are the taxpayer-funded payments state legislators can receive for each day they serve in the state Capitol.

Thousands of the mailers have been sent, beginning last month, according to the group’s website.

Kampf, however, contends that he has never accepted per diems as a state legislator, a fact he said was confirmed in a letter sent to him from the House’s comptroller, Mary-Jo Mullen.

“It is just not true,” Kampf said in an interview Tuesday. “I haven’t taken any per diems.”

The payments are made to legislators to offset costs

associated with working and staying in Harrisburg when the Legislature is in session, but do not require receipts or backup documentation.

Kampf said the payments have been subject to abuse in the past by legislators who accept them for costs they do not actually have, and he has steered clear of them during his four terms in office.

Kampf said he takes reimbursements only for the travel costs he incurs shuttling between his home in Tredyffrin and Harrisburg. “I think that is what people do in the normal world,” he said. “But this conjures up an idea of a public servant profiting off his public service. It drives me crazy. Not only is it not true, it is offensive.”

Kampf said that the Fund for Change was supported by, among others, the head of a Philadelphia-based law firm that handles a large number of workers compensation cases, Samuel Pond of Pond, Lehocky, Stern & Giordano.

Kampf said he apparently drew the firm’s ire because of his support of a proposal last year that would reform

the workers compensation system involving prescription drug payments. It followed reports that law firms like Pond’s work with doctors to steer clients to pharmacies the firms have a financial interest in.

“Even with politics as bad as it is today, the truth should never be a casualty,” Kampf said in a news release. “The fact that this outside group is more interested in gaining power than telling the truth is disgusting. They want the Legislature to be in their control.”

An attorney for the Fund for Change organization on Tuesday said it “has no affiliation with Pond, Lehocky, Stern & Giordano nor is that law firm a contributor.”

The attorney, Shelly Chauncey of the West Conshohocken law firm of Lowey Dannenberg, declined further comment. Chauncey is a former Democratic candidate for the newly constructed 5th Congressional District in Delaware County.

An attempt to reach Pond at his office in Philadelphia was unsuccessful.

According to Kampf’s press release, on Oct. 2, news reports referred to State Rep. Warren Kampf Pennsylvania Fund for Change as a “mysterious new group” and reported that it would not report its donors, spending plans, and targeting decisions when asked by their reporter. It went on to report that the treasurer for the campaign is tied to a pro-Democratic super PAC that spent $2.5 million in 2015 state judicial races.

“I think the people of our community have had enough with the D.C.-style politics, dark money and lies,” Kampf said. “I decided to do this so that someone takes a stand against these special interests and says, ‘enough is enough, we don’t want you here.’”

He provided the Daily Local News with an email that he purported came from Pond, in which the attorney asked recipients to “dig deep and give now to advance our state legislative work through PA Fund for Change.” The email directed the recipients to the groups’ website, which listed Kampf, as well as fellow Republican House members from Chester County – Becky Corbin and Eric Roe – as “targets” for spending.

The website stated that mailings in Kampf’s district would go out on Sept. 28, and Oct. 3, Oct. 10, and Oct. 15. Kampf’s petition attaches three of the mailings that were delivered to people in the 157th District.

The website accuses Kampf, Corbin and Roe of taking “extreme policy positions” and “money from corporate special interests,” as well as turning their “backs on Chester County families.” The promised mailings would target thousands of “newly registered Democrats and Independents,” the website states.

In his petition, Kampf asks the court to prohibit further distribution of the campaign literature accusing

him of taking “thousands of dollars” in per diem payments, and collecting those that were mailed, and to order the group to make an immediate retraction of the accusations against Kampf involving the per diem payments.

The petition cites the state’s Election Law as forbidding distribution of “knowingly false and fraudulent”campaign information.

Kampf also contends that the mailings were sent with the knowledge of his opponent in the Nov. 6 election, Democrat Melissa Shusterman of Schuylkill Township, and were made in order to aid her campaign.

Shusterman, who is making her first run for Legislature, could not be reached for comment. The mailings do not mention her candidacy at all, although she is cited as Kampf’s opponent on the Fund for Change website.

A hearing on Kampf’s petition before President Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody has been set for Wednesday.