Facing his toughest election challenge in years, GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has blanketed southeast Pennsylvania with attacks on his Democratic opponent — many of them citing what appear to be independent local news reports.
“Bob Harvie calls himself a king,” reads one article quoted in a June television spot.
“Bob Harvie has his FBI files but refuses to release them,” reads another headline quoted in a September digital ad.
Another quotes, “Bob Harvie to independent voters: ‘join a political party or lose your right to vote.’”
These ads and five others all cite headlines from Patch, a “hyperlocal” news organization that has garnered hefty audiences in some communities. Patch employs full-time journalists but also allows locals to post unedited “articles.”
That isn’t the only reason to question the reliability of coverage referenced in the ads: Each of the articles cited carry the byline of Dave Sommers, a Levittown, Pennsylvania, man with close ties to Fitzpatrick and a checkered history with law enforcement.
The battle for the 1st District has grown increasingly nasty as the five-term incumbent battles national headwinds for Republicans and tries to fend off a spirited challenge from Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner.
Central to the GOP defense strategy has been a costly ad blitz, with Fitzpatrick and allies trying to paint Harvie not as a devoted public servant but as an ethically compromised political operator — using Sommers’ headlines as key fodder.
Sommers has received sporadic payments and reimbursements from Fitzpatrick’s campaign, as well as from the campaign of his late brother, Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, dating back to 2010. As recently as 2022, Brian Fitzpatrick’s campaign paid Sommers $500 for “office setup services,” according to Federal Election Commission records.
That year, Sommers was charged with stealing an election sign that expressed support for a GOP primary challenger, Alex Entin, according to a local news report.
Sommers has been pictured with Fitzpatrick at campaign and personal events. Fitzpatrick’s Facebook page shows Sommers posing next to the lawmaker at a March 2025 St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Sommers’ own Facebook account has featured a stream of posts supporting Fitzpatrick, including one post from June where Sommers is seen sporting a tank top with the phrase “Team Fitz.”
Sommers also attended Fitzpatrick’s June wedding, according to multiple social media posts. In one wedding photo posted to Sommers’ Facebook, he poses with former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), also a guest.
Sommers did not respond to repeated requests for comment about his relationship to Fitzpatrick and his campaign. Spokespeople for the Fitzpatrick campaign also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Reilly Richardson, a spokesperson for the House GOP campaign arm, pointed in a statement to a Friday report that Harvie passed off “known Democrat activists” as “concerned voters” in his own ads and accused him of “lying to voters.”
“Now, he’s desperately trying to distract from his pathetic, flailing campaign, but Pennsylvanians won’t be fooled,” Richardson said of Harvie.
Sommers is a retired reporter who worked for the Bucks County Courier Times, The Trentonian and other local outlets.
He drew headlines of his own after he was prosecuted for trafficking in protected turtles. Prosecutors alleged he made more than $500,000 over six years selling diamondback terrapins online, running afoul of state and federal conservation laws. Sommers was handed a six-month prison sentence in 2019, along with six months of house arrest and a $250,000 fine.
Sommers opened a more recent chapter as a Patch contributor, posting eight articles dating back to late February. They all attack Harvie, slamming him for being “divisive,” “arrogant” and a “hack.” They feature messaging consistent with the Fitzpatrick campaign, including an Aug. 27 post that accuses Harvie of wanting “more data centers in Bucks County.”
Harvie in a statement called Fitzpatrick “a complete and total fraud” and said he’s growing “desperate.”
“Brian Fitzpatrick is worse than the rest of the Washington swamp because he pretends to be different, but the receipts show he is corrupt to the core,” he said.
Harvie has also repeatedly denied several of the Fitzpatrick campaign and its allies’ characterizations of his record, particularly that he was the target of any FBI investigation. Harvie testified before a federal grand jury with other officials in September 2022 as part of an apparent public corruption probe, according to a local report.
He sent a cease-and-desist letter to Fitzpatrick in July, claiming defamation in campaign ads. He also sued the pro-Fitzpatrick Defending America PAC in August for defamatory statements.
The use of headlines mined from self-publishing platforms in political ads is not unheard of, with outlets such as Medium and Substack offering opportunities for both parties to pass off politically motivated attacks as independent reporting. Campaigns around the country have drawn scrutiny for leaning on articles in their campaign materials from partisan sources or that misrepresent their origin — but rarely are they citing sources that have such direct ties to the candidate.
Posting on Patch, like those other platforms, requires only creating an account. An email associated with Sommers appears to be tied to a Patch account, prompting a “Welcome back!” message when it is used to try to open a new account.
CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to more precisely describe Patch’s journalism.