Stender vs. Ledger

Linda Stender’s campaign chastised a Star-Ledger columnist for writing that a piece of campaign literature from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee came from her own campaign.

At issue is conservative columnist Paul Mulshine’s most recent piece, which was circulated by Stender rival Leonard Lance’s campaign via press release this morning. The campaign literature Mulshine referred to claimed that Lance was in cahoots with former Gov. Christie Whitman on pension bonding in 1997.

Lance was actually one of the most vocal critics of pension bonding, and has made that a centerpiece of his current congressional run.

Mulshine called the mailer “the single sleaziest campaign ad I have ever seen.”

The Stender campaign is asking for a retraction, saying that the campaign did not know about the ad and had no control over its distribution. Stender spokeswoman Irene Lin went on to attack Mulshine for his views on social security.

“It’s no wonder that coming off a debate in which Leonard Lance admitted his support in 2005 for President Bush’s Social Security privatization proposal, a fellow pro-privatizer decided to write a false, biased column without even checking the facts first. The Star-Ledger should issue a retraction,” said Lin.

U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who chairs the DCCC, has come to New Jersey before to campaign for Stender and fellow Democratic congressional candidate John Adler. The group prominently features Stender and Adler among their top races, and has committed millions of dollars in ad buys to help them.

Mulshine could not immediately be reached for comment.

UPDATE -- Mulshine's response

I'm glad someone recognizes I'm a right-winger after all thosemisguided neocon readers have called me a liberal for pointing out theinconvenient fact that Sarah Palin is an airhead.

As for Stender's allegations against Lance for having backed the Whitmanbond issue, Stender repeated them in her ads with the same cite to the same Bergen Record article and also at the debate at News12 the othernight. I was there and I could scarcely believe my ears. Everyone in Trenton knows he was the lone conservative voice in a Whitman wildernessopposing this bonding nonsense and he has been consistent to this day.

Does she now admit that he opposed the pension bonds? If so, good for her. She sure didn't admit it the other night.