Dems hit MacArthur on fundraiser by Sandy relief foe

Democrats are criticizing Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-Toms River) for holding a fundraiser with a top Trump administration official who opposed relief funding for New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy.

Mick Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, voted against legislation to provide billions of dollars in relief aid to New Jersey after the 2012 superstorm while serving as a congressman from South Carolina.

“After selling out his constituents by authoring the Republican healthcare repeal bill and voting for the Republican Tax Scam, Congressman MacArthur is reaping his reward—glitzy fundraisers with members of the White House,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Evan Lukkaske.  “And if Kellyanne Conway and President Trump weren’t bad enough, now MacArthur is fundraising with the chief opponent of Sandy aid, Mick Mulvaney.

Mulvaney will headline a Washington fundraiser for MacArthur, a two-term Republican, on April 25, according to a report in POLITICO.

“While MacArthur is hobnobbing with rich donors and lobbyists, New Jersey families will be sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out how to pay their increased health insurance premiums and higher taxes, “Lukaske said.  “And they’ll know it’s MacArthur who’s to blame.”

The MacArthur campaign pushed back on efforts by the Democrats to portray the GOP congressman as anything other than fully supportive of Hurricane victims.

“Tom and his wife Debbie created and funded the St. Peter’s Sandy Relief Fund, which aided numerous local families in the wake of the storm.  Tom and Debbie also opened their own home to Sandy survivors so they could continue to live and work locally after the devastation,” said spokesman Chris Russell.  “This lazy paint-by-numbers messaging by the DCCC is why they got their heads handed to them in 2014 and couldn’t find anyone to run against Tom in 2016.  I hope they keep it up.”

Russell says it’s curious that the DCCC is invoking “higher taxes” after MacArthur’s general election opponent, former Obama White House staffer Andy Kim, “was caught collecting an illegal tax break by claiming he was a resident of D.C., while at the same time living, voting and running for Congress in New Jersey.”

“And less than 24 hours after Mr. Kim flip-flopped on tax reform, and now says he does not support repeal of the tax cuts,” Russell said.