The campaign manager for a Republican member of Congress voiced concerns this week after damaging documents concerning a Democratic opponent were leaked online as voters in Pennsylvania prepare to hit the polls.
The documents were published Monday on the Guccifer 2.0 blog and include internal Democratic Party memos in which officials discuss critical congressional races in the Keystone State. Among the files is an internal memo attributed to the director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Ian Russell, in which he raises doubts about the party’s nominee for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 6th District, Mike Parrish.
In the wake of similarly leaked documents being incorporated into a GOP-sponsored smear-campaign, the campaign manager for Mr. Parrish’s opponent, freshman Republican incumbent Ryan Costello, denounced the leaks to the local Lebanon Daily News on Thursday.
“We are deeply concerned about cyber attacks by a foreign entity in an attempt to influence the outcome of American elections,” Mr. Costello’s campaign manager, Vince Galko, told the newspaper. “We will not use information contained in the hacking as an opportunity to attack our opponent, Mike Parrish.”
According to the memo leaked Monday, Mr. Russell and others within the DCCC – the official fundraising wing of House Democrats — have feared Mr. Parrish won’t fare well when he goes up against the incumbent in November’s election.
“His 2016 campaign is struggling to build support and raise money. Parrish withdrew from the race before the primary in 2014. DCCC is currently working with EMILYs List to recruit another Democrat into the race,” Mr. Russell purportedly wrote in a December 2015 memo addressed to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat.
The memo was leaked with a handful of other documents concerning the Pennsylvania Democrats that appear to have been stolen from the DCCC after its servers were breached by hackers earlier this week. The FBI is investigating that hack and others waged against various Democratic Party officials and organizations, including the Democratic National Committee breach that saw thousands of sensitive emails dumped online on the eve of the party’s nominating convention in Philadelphia last month.
Several U.S. intelligence officials have informally blamed both breaches on an apparent cyber campaign being waged by the Russian government, but have fallen short of directly attributing the attack on the Kremlin. Moscow has denied involvement in the hacks.
Monday’s posting of documents related to Pennsylvania Democrats came one week after the same blog shared DCCC documents concerning the party’s upcoming races in Florida, a significant swing state. The National Republican Congressional Committee unveiled an attack ad on Tuesday this week aimed at Randy Perkins, a Democrat running for Congress in Florida’s 18th District, that explicitly cites a hacked DCCC memo leaked days earlier.
“National security experts are in wide agreement that Russian state actors have conducted a massive cyber attack against key institutions in our nation’s democracy. The NRCC is now stooping to a shocking new low and using unverified documents provided by the Russians — who are known to fake and doctor materials — to try to influence federal races,” complained the DCCC’s executive director, Kelly Ward.
“By using these documents in an attack ad, the NRCC is aiding the Russian government in their effort to influence American elections,” she said in a statement Tuesday.
Mr. Parrish’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment when contacted earlier this week.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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