WASHINGTON – Democrats' latest attack on a South Jersey Republican congressional candidate takes him to task for a legal entanglement involving his former firm but that he had no role in – prompting a threat of a lawsuit Monday and a demand that the ad be pulled off the airwaves.
The dispute hinges on a television ad the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began running on cable Sunday hammering Tom MacArthur, the Republican nominee in a surprisingly close House race against Democrat Aimee Belgard, a Burlington County Freeholder. They as they compete to replace the retiring U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan (R., N.J.). On Monday MacArthur's attorneys wrote to Comcast urging them to pull the ad. In a statement, MacArthur called it "a reckless and despicable smear with absolutely no basis in truth."
MacArthur spokesman Chris Russell added in an interview Monday, "if this ad doesn't come down by the end of the day, there's going to be a lawsuit."
The DCCC, which sees this race as one of its best chances in the country to pick up a GOP-held seat, declined on Monday to speak on the record about evidence that would support the ad. Spokeswoman Emily Bittner wrote in an e-mail, "there is no question that Tom MacArthur profited from a company that denied claims of injured firefighters."
The 30-second spot is based on a lawsuit eight Phoenix firefighters have filed against York Risk Services, the insurance service company MacArthur founded, ran and then sold for around $500 million in December 2010. The firefighters argue that York improperly denied them claims for injuries suffered on the job. The plaintiffs include one firefighter who died of colon cancer, possibly, the suit says, because of chemicals she was exposed to, and another injured when a roof collapsed during a fire.
But the insurance claims in the lawsuit were initially handled by Avizent, a separate company that York acquired in December 2011 -- nearly a year after MacArthur sold York and gave up any role in the company. He therefore had no role in the disputed claims, MacArthur's campaign said.
MacArthur stepped down as York chief executive in April 2009 and completely left the company in December 2010, giving up his role as chairman, his campaign said. Seven of the eight claims were filed in 2011. The only claim filed while MacArthur was still at York was denied while Avizent handled the claims, not York, according to the Arizona lawsuit and the timeline of MacArthur's role at the company.
Russell, MacArthur's spokesman, said Democrats were trying to hold MacArthur accountable for actions by a company that he had already left.
The Democratic ad says MacArthur "profited from a company that denied claims of injured fire fighters."
The ad features a man identified only as a Phoenix fire captain named John who tells the camera, "my brother and sister firefighters had to take Tom MacArthur's company to court over all of these denied claims. They shouldn't have made their money hurting guys like me."
The plaintiffs in the suit do not include anyone named "John."
"We don't need someone like that in Congress," John concludes.
As the ad points to MacArthur's profits, it cites MacArthur's May financial disclosure form, in which MacArthur reported "residual stock option income" from his 2010 sale of York. The disclosure of that payment is required for income of $5,000 or more from the past two years, though the amount MacArthur received is not specified.
MacArthur's spokesman, Russell, said the payment resulted from activities before MacArthur sold the firm and was not related to business after late 2010. He again stressed that York did not acquire Avizent until 2011, after MacArthur left York.
A Belgard spokeswoman declined to comment on the content of the ad or say if the candidate would call for it to be taken down.
"It's not our ad, we can't control it," said Belgard spokeswoman Hannah Ledford. "It's illegal for us to try to coordinate," with the DCCC.
MacArthur accused her of "hiding."
“She should have the courage and decency to stand up, publicly disavow this ad and call on her cronies in Washington to take it down immediately,” he said in his statement. “Failure to do so would be undeniable proof that Aimee Belgard is willing to trade her principles and her ethics for a seat in Congress.”
The firefighters' attorney on Monday said MacArthur's name had not come up so far in the ongoing suit.
"I don't know that his name has come up in any of the documents," disclosed so far, said the lawyer, Michael Doyle. He said he has been wrangling with York for more information higher up the corporate chain, but has not reached MacArthur's level yet.
He accused York leadership of creating a culture that led to denials of the firefighters' claims, though he could not point to MacArthur's specific role or if he was involved in the firefighters' cases. Based on what the plaintiffs have been told, Avizent handled claims up until December of 2011, Doyle wrote in an e-mail.
"I don't know when (MacArthur) stepped down, but I can tell you that their corporate culture created a lot of harm among the first responders in Phoenix at least," Doyle said in an interview.
MacArthur’s campaign has responded to previous attacks by saying York did not make any more or less money based on how it processed claims for its clients.
The DCCC has heavily invested in helping Belgard win. But so-called "independent expenditures" ads like this one are, by law, required to be made separately from the campaigns in the race. They cannot coordinate on such spending.
This is the third DCCC ad to draw attention to MacArthur's record with York as Democrats attempt to paint the former North Jersey mayor as a wealthy outsider to the South Jersey district.
"When it comes to Tom MacArthur's priorities, it's clear that he would stand with special interests and the ultra-wealthy at the expense of the middle class," said Bittner, the DCCC spokeswoman.
The committee's first ad in this race also drew sharp criticism: it cited lawsuits against York (while MacArthur was still there) in which victims of wildfires and hurricanes in Texas and California sued, saying their claims were wrongly denied. While discussing disasters, though, the ad featured images of wreckage from Superstorm Sandy, in which MacArthur had no role as an insurer. The 2012 storm and its aftermath remain a highly sensitive subject in a district that was battered by its winds, rain and flooding.
Each of the lawsuits cited in that first ad was settled.
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