With the Feb. 12 primary fast approaching, the Club for Growth last week dropped a $250,000 television and radio ad buy in the 1st district’s increasingly bitter Republican battle.

The club is backing state Sen. Andy Harris in the primary race, and its new ads paint Rep. Wayne Gilchrest and state Sen. E.J. Pipkin as economic liberals “pretending to be conservatives.”

Pipkin’s camp fired back at the Club for Growth and Harris on Friday for a reference made in the radio ad to a political contribution he made to former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2002.

Pipkin said in the statement that he made the donation as private citizen who was fighting to save the Chesapeake Bay from the policies of then-Gov. Parris Glendening (D).

“The Bay was under attack and Pipkin was using every means possible to protect this unique natural resource,” according to a news release from Pipkin’s campaign.

“I attended an event that had the decision makers in the room,” Pipkin said in the release. “I make no apologies for doing whatever it took to protect the bay. At the time, it was the most direct way to reach key leaders that were determining the fate of the dumping issue.”
— John McArdle