A.G. GancarskiIn an indication of the back and forth that will likely characterize Florida’s Republican Primary race in CD 2, the campaign of Neal Dunn on Friday retorted that Mary Thomas’ “Five Questions” for the Panama City Republican are rank misrepresentations of Dunn’s record.
“It is unfortunate that Mary Thomas has already started to sling mud against a fellow Republican in the race to unseat Gwen Graham, but if she is going to sling mud, she better get her facts straight,” said Sarah Bascom, Dunn’s spokeswoman.
“For the last 17 years, Dr. Dunn has been a volunteer board member of the Florida Medical Association (FMA), which is a separate organization not linked to the American Medical Association (AMA) of which Dr. Dunn is not a member. While the AMA came out in support of ObamaCare, the FMA took the opposite position and strongly opposed ObamaCare. Dr. Dunn agreed with the FMA’s position and continues to be a strong opponent of ObamaCare. It is unfortunate that Mary Thomas’ mud slingers are so sloppy in their research.
“Additionally, as it relates to campaign contributions, a search of both state and federal campaign finance databases will show, that over the last 20 years, Dr. Dunn, in his own name, has generously contributed more than $58,000 to Republican candidates and the Republican Party. To single out a few other contributions to try and use as an indictment against Dr. Dunn’s Republican credentials is completely disingenuous,” Bascom concluded.
The email from the Dunn camp included pointed criticisms from former House Speaker Allan Bense.
“I am really disappointed in Mary Thomas misrepresenting Neal Dunn’s record. Neal has been a trusted backer of our conservative values and candidates for more than 20 years, to imply otherwise is not true. These are tactics that, in my old fashioned opinion, turn people off,” Bense said.
This is likely only the first round between these candidates and their staffs with more to come as the race heats up.
