Schmid stands by her lies

Stephanie Schmid, the unemployed lawyer who lives with her mother and is running against Congressman Chris Smith, hung up on a reporter when given the chance to correct documented lies in her campaign mailer about Smith’s votes on protecting healthcare coverage with people with preexisting conditions and an “age tax.”

NewJerseyGlobe reported this morning that Schmid declined to speak with reporter Nikita Biryukov about the mailer that inaccurately quotes a NYTimes article and a congressional roll call vote on Smith’s votes on the issues. Schmid’s mailer inaccurately claimed that Rep Smith voted against protecting people with pre-existing conditions and that he voted for instituting an age tax. The NYTimes article and the roll call vote sited in Schmid’s mailer accurate reported Smith’s votes for covering pre-existing conditions and against the age tax.

When confronted with the lies during an Asbury Park Press forum on Monday, Schmid doubled down.

“All of our mailers are perfectly researched. I stand by them,” she said during the forum.

The mailer inaccurately stated, “Congressman Smith voted for a healthcare plan that guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions like cancer, asthma and diabetes,” the mailer says, falsely. “Congressman Smith voted to allow insurers to charge an age tax that raises premiums on older Americans and increases prescription costs.”

Biryukov reported that Schmid said she answered his call because she thought it was from someone else. She referred him to a staffer.

NJGlobe Editor David Wildstein told MMM that he personally called Schmid back to give her an opportunity to correct the record. “She hung up on me,” Wildstein said.