Doherty camp lashes out at Cicilline for donation from Bain exec.

Posted: 7/19/2012 10:16:52 AM
Updated: 7/19/2012 11:47:43 AM

District One is heating up. The Brendan Doherty for Congress campaign lashed out at Democratic Opponent Congressman David Cicilline calling him a hypocrite on Thursday morning.

The Doherty Campaign is calling on Cicilline to return campaign contributions from Jonathan Lavine, Managing Director & Chief Investment Officer of Bain Capital, and Jeanne Lavine, his wife. Cicilline has been a sharp critic of Bain Capital, a company that Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney used to head, for outsourcing jobs overseas.

“This is clearly a little bit of do as I say not as I do from Congressman Cicilline,” Ian Prior told the WPRO Morning News with Tara Granahan and Andrew Gobeil.

Cicilline also held a press conference this week to call for the U.S. Olympic uniforms to be manufactured in the U.S.

“He spent his short term in Congress talking about bringing jobs to America and criticizing outsourcing firms and then he accepts money from the people that work at the very firms he criticizes. There is a word for that it is called hypocrisy,” said Prior.

The Cicilline campaign struck back saying Doherty is just distracting voters and that it is Doherty not Cicilline who is shipping jobs overseas. "This is a continuation of an effort by Brendan Doherty to make voters focus on anything but what he will do if he gets to Washington. Doherty’s first vote would be to support the Tea Party-backed Republican leadership that passed a budget which keeps tax breaks in place for companies that America ship jobs overseas and has refused to take any action to end the manipulation of currency by the Chinese that is costing American jobs," said Eric Hyers, Campaign Manager for Congressman Cicilline's re-election bid.

The Doherty Campaign alleges that Cicilline has received $5,000 from the Lavine’s this election cycle. In addition the Doherty Campaign says Cicilline should return a check for $1,000 in 2010 and a check for $1,500 in May 2012 from Jonathan Davidson who lists his occupation as “Global Outsourcing” for RR Donnelley.
Cicilline said he is proud to have the support of the Lavine family and he has been friends of Jonathan Levine's parents for over 25-years.

Cicilline's campaign asserted that the Congressman is in fact trying to protect American jobs despite the rhetoric from the Doherty Campaign. "David is fighting to end these tax breaks and stop the cheating by the Chinese. These are the things that will grow and create manufacturing jobs here in Rhode Island," said Hyers.