Democratic candidate comes under fire over donations

BUCKS COUNTY (WTXF) - Democratic candidate Scott Wallace who is trying to unseat Republican Brian Fitzpatrick is coming under fire. The issue is donations he made to a liberal organization that has among other thing given a voice to convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Brian Fitzpatrick is questioning grant donations that his opponent for the November election made to a media platform called Democracy Now!.

"Everybody's entitled to make contributions as they see fit but when you run for public office you got to answer for those," Fitzpatrick said.

Public records show Scott Wallace, who is running against Fitzpatrick, has made grant donations through the Wallace Global Fund to Democracy Now!, which has aired stories about and from Mumia Abu-Jamal. The former member of the Black Panthers was convicted of killing Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

"It's something Scott needs to explain explain why donations were made if they were connected in any way with Mumia's appearances," Fitzpatrick said.

Candidate Scott Wallace's campaign staff says the Wallace Global Fund has made donations to many organizations that support democracy, including Democracy Now!!, but spokesperson Zoe Wilson Meyer said the following:

"It is frankly absurd to connect criminals to Scott Wallace and consider him personally responsible for the content of this news organization. These conflations are an insult to the first amendment and an attack on the freedom of the press."

Constituents in Bucks County say they want truth and disclosure from the representatives they send to Washington.

"It's not something I think should disqualify anybody for any reason," voter John Biasiello said. " I don't think it makes him a bad guy but maybe if he could disclose some of the questions on why he did that for the voters I think that would help elaborate some of these people questions.

The Wallace campaign has questioned a contribution that Fitzpatrick accepted from a convicted felon. The Fitzpatrick campaign when questioned about it donated that unsolicited campaign contribution money to two charities in Bucks County.