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Spotlight On: Burton ‘Bud’ Gotshall

Spotlight On: Burton ‘Bud’ Gotshall
July 20, 2012

Burton “Bud” Gotshall knew the Republican primary race in his Florida congressional district was going to get ugly. The proof arrived in his mailbox this week.
Gotshall received a campaign mailer from veteran Rep. John Mica, who is running against freshman Rep. Sandy Adams because of congressional redistricting. Mica has been in Congress for 20 years. Adams is aligned with the tea party and has the support of Sarah Palin.
Mica’s mailer accuses Adams of being someone President Barack Obama “counted on”

Florida Primary Flier Frames Republican

Florida Primary Flier Frames Republican
July 20, 2012

In a primary battle between two House Republicans, a Florida congressman claims in a campaign mailer that his opponent was someone President Barack Obama “counted on” to “approve” stimulus spending. Not really. The mailer’s target, Sandy Adams, is a freshman congresswoman who arrived in Washington nearly two years after the stimulus passed into law.
The flier’s evidence — in fine print — is Adams’ record in the Florida legislature. As a state representative, she voted to approve two state budgets,

Whoppers of 2012, Early Edition

Whoppers of 2012, Early Edition
July 20, 2012

Thomas Hobbes’ oft-cited phrase from 1651, “nasty, brutish and short,” does not describe the 2012 presidential campaign — unfortunately. The contest so far has been nasty all right, and disregard for the truth has been brutish on both sides, in our judgment. But alas, it won’t be over until Nov …

Romney and the Tax Return Precedent

Romney and the Tax Return Precedent
July 19, 2012

Mitt Romney says he is following the “precedent” set by John McCain in releasing just two years of tax returns. That’s accurate. But McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, bucked the trend of other recent presidential candidates.
In more than three decades, no other nominees for either party have released fewer than five years’ worth of returns. Romney’s own father released a dozen years’ worth when he ran for the GOP nomination in 1968.
Romney has been under mounting public pressure to release tax returns —

FactCheck Mailbag, Week of July 10-16

July 19, 2012

This week, readers sent us both positive and negative reviews of the website.
In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the email we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.

If You Like Your Plan …

July 18, 2012

After the Supreme Court’s ruling on the federal health care law, President Obama repeated his claim that for Americans “who already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.” But Obama can’t make that promise for everyone. At least a few million workers won’t keep their current plans.
Read more about Romney’s and President Obama’s false and misleading claims made after the high court’s ruling in our June 28 article, “Romney, Obama Uphold Health Care Falsehoods.”

Spotlight On: Jim Watson

Spotlight On: Jim Watson
July 18, 2012

Jim Watson was immediately skeptical of American Commitment’s attack ad, which he saw on Facebook.
The ad’s narrator claimed Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, voted to increase electricity costs while displaying the text, “Ohio: Electric Bills Will Skyrocket.”

“Like all political ads, the extreme language (skyrocket) and the improbable idea that anyone would actually vote for electric rates to go up, was too much to resist,” Watson wrote to us in an email. “I knew it was an attack ad,

Group Blows Fuse With Electric Bill Claim

Group Blows Fuse With Electric Bill Claim
July 18, 2012

A conservative group goes too far in TV ads that claim a new EPA regulation on coal power plants will make Ohio’s electric bills “skyrocket.” Utility officials say it’s too soon to determine how big the impact will be.
Nationally, projections from the Energy Information Administration show only a slight fluctuation in the residential price of electricity over the long run. The EIA factored in the regulation in its projections.
There’s reason to believe there might be more of an impact in price in Ohio,

DCCC Calls Latham Out on TARP

DCCC Calls Latham Out on TARP
July 18, 2012

A Democratic robocall in Iowa accuses GOP Rep. Tom Latham of “looking out for himself” by profiting from legislation he actually opposed.
The Des Moines Register reports that the call from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee charges Latham with “only looking out for himself, not the middle class,” for having stock in a bank holding company that took Troubled Asset Relief Program funds in 2009.
The problem with that claim is that Latham actually voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that created TARP back in 2008.