The mudslinging in the Republican special election for Florida’s 19th congressional district has officially begun. Over the past several weeks, both the Curt Clawson and Lizbeth Benacquisto campaigns have been trading subtle barbs (some not-so-subtle),but now Benacquisto has officially put out an email questioning Clawson’s past business acumen, while taking a jab at former Congressman Trey Radel.

Clawson is running an “outsider businessman” campaign with a solid business record that he believes is needed in Congress, but Team Benacquisto isn’t buying his claims, and is calling Clawson a liar.

“You may have heard, one of our opponents is a man from Michigan by the name of Curt Clawson. He is an unknown to the area, and has been spending millions on TV ads to cast himself as an “outsider businessman.”

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Now we know this was all a lie.

Why does Benacquisto think Clawson is lying about his positive “outsider” message?

“Clawson drove his business into bankruptcy twice, hired Democratic lobbyists to obtain a $94 million taxpayer-funded bailout, and donated to Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow–one of the architects of Obamacare–in exchange for inserting a loophole into the Obamacare law to bail out his failing company.

Normally, we would just let Lizbeth’s strong conservative record speak for itself. But because Clawson is basing his entire campaign on his so-called “business experience”–which turns out to be full of bailouts, bankruptcies, lobbyists and layoffs

Please, share this with family and friends who may have been considering a vote for Clawson. Just like our former Congressman, this man from Michigan is not who he says he is. We can’t get burned again.

Sincerely,

Abby Dosoretz
Campaign Manager

As we pointed out in an earlier story, there are questions that both candidates need to answer, including those raised in regards to Clawson’s business history, and Benacquisto’s flip-flop on her support for Common Core education standards, and her support of expanding Medicaid in 2013.

Meanwhile, Paige Kreegel is responding to Clawson’s earlier claim that he (Kreegel) threatened him with a negative attack from a Super PAC.

Everyday my campaign manager does a routine search of expenditures by the various political action committees (PACs) involved in the CD19 special election. This information is PUBLICLY available on the Federal Election Commission website, and is the same method used to reveal that “outsider” Clawson contributed $2,500 to the campaign of Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow and $10,000 to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

When notified by my staff on Friday of an FEC filing by a Super PAC, indicating that they were to spend money in opposition of Curt Clawson, I called Curt personally to express my displeasure with a process over which I have no control. Apparently no good deed goes unpunished, and Clawson and his high priced Washington, D.C. consultants made the decision to use my act of civility against me. It’s abundantly clear that Curt would like to make an issue out of it since he has taken a recent beating in the press and in the polls.”
–Paige Kreegel

Now the Benacquisto campaign has just released another email that bunches together Clawson, Kreegel and the Super PAC in question, of being part of a “Good ‘Ol Boys Club.”

Benacquisto’s campaign assumes  that Kreegel and Clawson are working in tandem against Lizbeth Benaquisto, simply because of the friendly natured voicemail that Kreegel left Clawson, giving him a heads up to the coming attacks from the Values are Vital PAC.

The next forum between the candidates in this circus act, I mean, congressional race, will be on Saturday March 22. More details to follow