Doheny goes after Owens for Taiwan trip

Republican congressional candidate Matt Doheny is out with his latest television advertisement. This time, the Watertown businessman goes after his opponent, U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, for a December 2011 trip to Taiwan that Doheny says violated House ethics rules.

You can read my previous report on this story here. Here's Doheny ad, which is called "Bill Owens: Breaking House Rules."

In a press release announcing the new ad, Doheny issued this statement:

“The House talked tough after the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal, passing a rule that forbid lobbyists from planning, organizing, requesting or arranging a trip paid for by a private sponsor,” said Matt Doheny, the Republican, Conservative and Independence parties’ candidate. “My opponent broke this rule, taking a four-day vacation with his wife, while using first-class tickets and $500-per-night hotel accommodations arranged by a D.C. lobbyist. When a reporter confronted him about breaking this rule, he denied any wrongdoing. Then, when the public outcry had gotten so loud, my opponent offered to pay for the trip so that he could sweep this issue under the rug.”

Doheny continued: “My opponent said he and his staff ‘did everything in accordance with the rules to the best of our knowledge at the time.’ My opponent is lawyer, so he knows: Ignorance of the law is no defense. Even worse, our congressman inexplicably continues to deny he broke any rule.”

Doheny concluded: “I pledge to the voters that I’ll never take one of these trips. They are indicative of the culture of corruption that still permeates Washington, and I reject my opponent’s weak suggestion that this trip was somehow for job creation purposes back home. If that’s true, where are the jobs, Congressman? Voters need to know there’s a clear choice between what I’ll do to serve my constituents and what my opponent will do to serve himself.”

Owens responded to the Doheny ad with one of his own.

One more note on this back-and-forth on the Taiwan trip: WPTZ-TV points out that the Doheny ad used the Chinese flag, not the Taiwanese flag.