Tom Waring, the Wire
Lawyer Dean Malik, an Iraq War veteran and former Bucks County assistant district attorney, last week announced his candidacy in the 8th Congressional District Republican primary.
Malik will face state Rep. Scott Petri and former Bucks County Commissioner Andy Warren in the primary.
The candidate lives with his wife and four children in New Britain Township and owns a private law practice in Doylestown.
In 2010, Malik announced his candidacy for the same seat. He later dropped out when fellow Republican Mike Fitzpatrick entered the race.
As a Marine officer, he served in Iraq during the troop surge of 2007–2008 and was subsequently ordered back to active duty in 2011 to serve as the liaison officer for a unit conducting counter-terrorism training missions on the Horn of Africa in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Malik will advocate for a strong, intelligent and effective national security policy.
In addition, he believes in limited government.
On other issues, he is pro-life and pro-Second Amendment, and favors a repeal of Obamacare and an unapologetic American foreign policy.
Malik’s father came to the United States from Pakistan in 1953, and his mother’s parents came as Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire prior to World War I. He believes in enforcement of immigration laws and opposes any pathway to citizenship or amnesty for those who are here unlawfully.
Indeed, while he was in the race in 2010, he appeared at a forum at Council Rock South High School sponsored by the Kitchen Table Patriots. Asked by the moderator if illegal immigrants should have a path to citizenship, he answered, “They should have a path out of the United States.”
Fitzpatrick, who won that race in 2010, is not seeking another term.
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Meanwhile, Democratic congressional candidate Shaughnessy Naughton will hold a fundraiser on Thursday, Dec. 17, at the Center City Philadelphia law firm Pond, Lehocky, Stern, Giordano.
The special guests will be former Gov. Ed Rendell and Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY’s List, a national organization that supports Democratic candidates who favor abortion.
Guests will pay from $250 to $2,700 for the two-hour reception.
Naughton will face state Rep. Steve Santarsiero in the primary.
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The National Republican Congressional Committee is questioning whether Naughton and Santarsiero support President Barack Obama’s policy on ISIS.
According to a CNN/ORC International poll, Americans oppose Obama’s policy, 64 percent to 33 percent.
“The Democrats running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 8th District need to demonstrate they are willing to put the safety of Americans ahead of playing nice with a president who has not taken the threat of ISIS seriously,” said NRCC communications director Katie Martin. “A large majority of Americans think the president’s strategy for dealing with ISIS isn’t working. Shaughnessy Naughton and Steve Santarsiero need to say whether they support the president’s current strategy, which is jeopardizing the safety of Americans both at home and abroad.”
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Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick delivered remarks last week regarding the Financial Service Committee’s unanimous vote to reauthorize the Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing.
Fitzpatrick chairs the task force.
“As we’ve seen in recent days and weeks, the threats posed by terrorist organizations like ISIS — as well as lone actors — are real and evolving. As the president correctly noted in his national address, we must work together — Republicans and Democrats, Congress and the administration — to accomplish the common goal of a safe America and a stable international community,” he said.
“With the rise of ISIS, Hezbollah, Boko Haram and others, the United States has witnessed a new and dangerous brand of terrorist group: one that funds itself and operates as a transnational criminal organization. This evolution in funding practices made it necessary for the federal government to reevaluate how it combats these threats to ensure we are doing everything possible to financially hinder these groups.”
Fitzpatrick said a new session of the Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing will take a look at several topics, including: trade-based money laundering, terror funding streams from Latin America and helping regional partners combat terror financing and the funding of foreign-based terrorists.
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In the first of what will be an ongoing series, Fitzpatrick addressed the House on what he believes are the dangers of, and damage done by, the medical device Essure.
Fitzpatrick highlighted the personal story of one of the more than 25,000 women who say they have been negatively impacted by the device.
The congressman authored the E-Free Act [H.R. 3920], which would require the Food and Drug Administration to remove the permanent sterilization device produced by Bayer from the market.
Fitzpatrick spoke of Angie Firmalino, 43, a mother of four from Tannersville, New York. She suffers physical and emotional pain six years after the procedure. She started a Facebook group called Essure Problems.
“If the manufacturer or the regulatory agency tasked with oversight won’t act, then we as the representatives of the thousands of harmed women must,” Fitzpatrick said. “That is why I rise in support of the E-Free Act — a one-page bill to remove Essure from the market by forcing the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the pre-market approval that let this product into the public in 2002. Mr. Speaker, the E-Free Act can halt this tragedy, and I urge my colleagues to join in this fight — because stories like Angie’s are too important to ignore.”
Since Essure was approved by the FDA on Nov. 4, 2002, the agency has received over 5,000 formal complaints related to the device.
Tens of thousands of women have reported symptoms including extreme pelvic and abdominal pain, migraines, autoimmune reactions, loss of teeth and hair, the metal coil breaking and migrating throughout the body, and the coil cutting into the uterus and other organs in the abdominal cavity.
The deaths of four women and five unborn children have been attributed to the use of Essure.
