A committee supporting Democratic candidates for Bensalem Township Council recently sent out a mailer saying “BENSALEM DESERVES BETTER [capitals in the original]” than a councilwoman who “lives in North Carolina.”
But Stacey Champion, the mailer’s subject, doesn’t “live” in the Tar Heel State, except when her family vacations mere weeks out of the year in the Outer Banks, staying at an investment property they bought last year.
The Republican councilwoman is seeking reelection on November 4 alongside fellow council member Michelle Benitez and their running mate Will Walker. The three of them face Democrats Joseph Wenzel Jr., Jesse Sloane, and Ed Tokmajian, all running for at-large seats.
Bensalem Community First, the committee representing Champion’s opposition and overseen by Tokmajian according to campaign finance reports, based its assertion on footage from HGTV’s House Hunters.
In the episode, Champion and her husband Al sit side by side to describe their new property buy and he said, “We’re moving to the Outer Banks, North Carolina.”
Democratic candidates reproached his remark with an online video, a mailer, and yard signs suggesting Stacey Champion won’t be around her township to participate in its governance. The councilwoman stressed the context in which her husband said “we’re moving.”
House Hunters, she recalled, approached her family’s realtor about featuring the $2.3 million beachfront dwelling, a place she said has welcomed many renters since her husband purchased it. (A property management company oversees the house when the Champions aren’t there for vacation.) Television producers, she explained, wanted those featured on the show to follow a script that emphasized homebuying, not investment or travel. Stacey Champion said the family agreed to appear because her children thought it would be fun.
“We had specifically said to [Scott Brothers Entertainment production company], ‘You know, we have no plans at any point in time to move into this house,’” she said. “‘This is a strictly investment property.’ And their response was, ‘Well, we’re not doing an investment show. This is all for fun; it’s part of House Hunters.’”
Tokmajian wrote in a Facebook post, “If Stacey is willing to perform in a scripted reality production, pretending and exaggerating for entertainment, can we trust her to make honest responsible, decisions for Bensalem[?]”
The Champions sold three investment properties before purchasing their new one in North Carolina, completing a 1031 exchange, a tax-deferment measure used by real estate investors. She added that her husband bought the Outer Banks property several months before he appeared on HGTV’s broadcast to discuss it.
Despite Champion’s assurance that she’s staying put, the Democrats’ mailer featured a note purportedly written by “Stacy [sic]” that read, without quotations, “Goodbye, Bensalem! We’re moving to North Carolina! See you never!”
“It infuriates me,” she said when asked for her reaction to seeing such words put in her mouth.
On the flip side, the piece asks, “How can Stacy [sic] Champion represent Bensalem… when she lives in North Carolina?”
Yet the Champions have not put their Bensalem house up for sale and Stacey says she has no intention of even broaching the possibility with a realtor, at least as long as she is a municipal legislator. She has served on Township Council for the last four years and, before that, held seats for years on her local Impact Advisory Board and Shade Tree Commission.
That community involvement, she said, bespeaks her connection to a town she can’t see herself leaving in the foreseeable future. She has had family in Bensalem for around a century. After growing up there she left for college and work but eventually returned, met Al Champion, and raised a family with him.
“I’ve always come back because it is my hometown,” she proclaimed. “So, if I was going to leave, I would not have come back either one of those times…. Our family is here; plus our children are still in school. I could never imagine not coming home to here.”
Champion said her children’s friends have texted them with links to mentions of the “moving” issue, giving her the impression that local adults have discussed the issue with their kids.
“They’re bringing kids into an adult arena for no reason other than to get clicks or to seed doubt when there really is no doubt,” she lamented.
Her foes have also placed yard signs in front of a much larger sign urging a vote for Champion, Benitez, and Walker. Situated under Champion’s name, the negative sign reads: “SHE’S MOVING TO NORTH CAROLINA?!” An image of the North Carolina flag appears under those words, but a disclaimer identifying who paid for the signs does not, despite state law requiring such disclosure for any entity spending significant money on a campaign.
Other attacks
Champion also took exception to the mailer’s policy-related attacks on Bensalem Republicans concerning taxes, open space, and other matters. She particularly contested an assertion that the majority-GOP council caused “serious water management failures — leaving homes and families at risk.” She attributed her community’s persistent flooding problems to its situation as a town that borders the Delaware River, Neshaminy Creek, and Poquessing Creek. She furthermore averred that certain residential properties in the township, like the one in which she lived as a child, should never have gotten built due to their flood vulnerabilities.
She recognized that some infrastructure must be repaired and noted the township recently completed a project on Pasqualone Boulevard to replace damaged old steel pipes.
“We want to make sure we do this [stormwater mitigation] in a way that is fiscally responsible with the best impact to helping our overall stormwater management,” she said. “We want to do it thoughtfully and methodically so we are not having debt to be in the $50 [million or] $60 million [range].”
Such a massive loan, she suggested, is unnecessary when the township can make needed improvements without incurring such a great burden for taxpayers.
Neither Tokmajian nor the Bensalem Democratic Organization replied to emails requesting comment.
Bradley Vasoli is the senior editor of The Independence.