Representative Rob Kauffman’s textbook campaign meltdown continues to add chapters. A recently published email appears to have exposed Kauffman (R-Chambersburg) in the middle of a not-so-intricate lie.
A well-established debate-dodger, Kauffman was noticeably absent from a recent candidates forum hosted by The Slate, Shippensburg University’s student newspaper.
After the event was over, a Chambersburg Public Opinion reporter called Kauffman and he told the press that he had actually not been invited by The Slate, “but would have loved to be there if he had.”
The only problem is that he was invited, and he flatly refused the invitation–and there’s an email to prove it.
The following is the text of an email sent to The Slate by Rep. Kauffman in response to their invitation:
“I appreciate your kind invitation. In my eight year tenure in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, this is the first time I’ve been invited to participate in such a forum at Shippensburg University. It sounds exciting and I am sorry that my calendar is already full on that evening. I hope it is a great event for you.”
The email, released by the faculty adviser to The Slate, Michael Drager, was published in Shippensburg’s student newspaper. In releasing the email, Drager said that “[f]or the first time in my 10 years as the faculty adviser of The Slate, I have asked the editor-in-chief and managing editor of the student-run campus publication for space to address the campus community.”
Kauffman’s misleading actions are no surprise to the voters in his district given Kauffman’s actions throughout this election cycle. Just recently, he was caught having photo-shopped a puppy into a family picture used in his campaign literature.
In what should be a safely-GOP seat, we are seeing a textbook example of a continuous campaign meltdown. In a Presidential election year, the student vote at Shippensburg will actually show up. With the series of missteps by Kauffman, the bump in student vote just might be able to support a squeaker victory for Susan Spicka, Kauffman’s challenger.
Jeez. Do we put forward only the clueless and uninformed for public office these days? Old email never goes away, and can always be recovered, even after a catastrophic drive crash.