PA Senate Candiate Mustio Promises To Pull Negative Ads

One of the three candidates vying for the Republican nomination for the Pennsylvania’s is pulling all of his negative advertising and is asking his opponents to do the same. 

“After thoughtful consideration, I have decided to unilaterally pull any political advertisement that mentions either of my opponents names or their records,” state Rep.  of Moon said in a statement issued Friday morning.  

“While I still believe that the records of public officials and candidates for public office should be subject to a certain degree of scrutiny during a campaign, that scrutiny should be balanced with an equal degree of decorum and respect," he said.

"I believe the campaign for this seat has become imbalanced and for that reason I have decided the only thing I will be communicating to voters is my experience as a local businessman and my accomplishments as a state legislator.” he added. 

Mustio’s decision comes less than a week after his campaign distributed literature accusing one of his opponents, , of filing a lawsuit against 84 of his employees, including one who wanted to stay at home with his mother who was undergoing chemotherapy.

Another of Mustio's recent fliers accused Raja, a native of India and a former Mt. Lebanon commissioner, of outsourcing jobs to that country and bore an image of the Indian flag.

Mustio, who has represented Moon as a state legislator since 2003, told Patch he is listening to a growing chorus of voters who say they are tired of mudslinging.

“If the public says this (positive campaigning) is what they want, then this is what they will get. We will all see what happens,” he said. 

His decision announced Friday, however, did not dissuade the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from withdrawing its endorsement of Mustio and instead recommending . The newspaper announced its decision in Saturday's editions, terming Mustio's recent campaign fliers "a racist appeal."

Raja campaign spokesman Mark Harris said the campaign is “glad that Mr. Mustio has finally ended his misleading attacks.

"We appreciate him responding to our request yesterday," Harris said. "We remained focused on Raja's conservative vision for the future, and hope Mark Mustio will put an end to these vicious and baseless personal attacks.”  

Mustio said his campaign is in the process of pulling down any negative ads that are currently running on television and radio as soon as the stations can remove them from rotation. In their place, Mustio has asked that the stations exclusively air his final advertisement that focuses solely on his personal background and legislative achievements.   

“I believe that all of us running for this seat are running for the right reasons,” Mustio said.  “It is my hope that my competitors will join me and take the remaining days leading up to the election to discuss our individual records and let the voters decide who they think is the right choice to represent them in Harrisburg.” 

Harris said the timing of Mustio’s decision is regrettable.

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Mustio has stepped wildly beyond the line of acceptable discourse, and it is too late the stop the damage caused by the grossly untrue and repulsive mailers and TV ads,” he said. 

Mustio’s decision comes less than a week after his campaign distributed literature accusing Raja of filing a lawsuit against 84 of his employees, including one who wanted to stay at home with his mother who was undergoing chemotherapy. Another flier accused Raja of outsourcing jobs to India.

The third candidate in the race, , issued a statement early Saturday in which she chided both of her opponent.

"From the beginning of this race, I have only focused on remedies to Pennsylvania's out-of-control spending problems, lower taxes, and jobs for Pennsylvania. In past campaigns, my opponents have endorsed each other and contributed financially to each other's campaigns," Means said. 

"But now that they are competing for the same prize, Mark Mustio and D. Raja have demonstrated a lack of character, and I repudiate the content of Mustio's ads in particular  their racial undertones." 

Update: As of Sunday, ads by the Mustio campaign that were critical of D. Raja appeared to have been pulled from Pittsburgh TV stations and replaced with ads focusing on Mustio.