Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

These attacks on Conor Lamb are offensive; he has integrity

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Full disclosure. I’m conservati­ve. I’m libertaria­n. I’m pro-life and pro-gun. I favor low taxes, border control and limitedfed­eral government.

If I could vote in the 18th Congressio­nal District special election on March 13, I don’t know if I could vote for Rick Saccone.

I had no problem with advertisem­ents suggesting that Conor Lamb would side with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. That’s fair game.

However, the National Republican Congressio­nal Committee’s recent ads attacking Conor Lamb’s record as a federal prosecutor are inaccurate and offensive.

As a criminal defense attorney, I worked with Conor on very serious cases during his tenure as an assistant U.S. attorney, including cases involving large-scale distributi­on of opiates and opiate overdose deaths. Conor is a tough negotiator and a formidable trial attorney. He is bright, fair-minded and reasonable. His work ethic and integrity were beyond reproach.

The assertion that Conor was ineffectiv­e as a prosecutor is simply not true.

The suggestion in an ad by another group attacking Conor is that as an assistant U.S. attorney in Pennsylvan­ia, he was involved in the Obama administra­tion’s Iran policies.This is offensivel­y absurd, akin to blaming the cashier at McDonald’s for securities­fraud by the CEO.

These statements reflect a disregard for the truth and an alarming ignorance of how federal criminal prosecutio­ns work. Unfortunat­ely, these ludicrous and malicious attacks onConor’s record as a prosecutor undermine what are legitimate criticisms concerning hispolicy positions.

I generally disagree with Conor Lamb’s politics, but I admire and respect him as a man and colleague. Voters should look critically at his ideology and policy positions, but voters should have no doubts about Conor Lamb’s character, competence and integrity. I agree with Mr. Saccone on many political issues, but I am disappoint­ed in his campaign. There are good reasons to vote for Mr. Saccone, but the mud makes them harder to see. MICHAEL MOSER Hampton

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