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WASHINGTON \u2014 In a Pennsylvania swing district<\/a> that\u2019s seen some of the sharpest and highest volume of attack ads this fall, Democrat Bob Brooks has called on Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R., Lehigh) to take down ads that he said were false and defamatory.<\/p>\n A lawyer for Brooks \u2014 a union leader and retired firefighter<\/a> who is considered one of the most likely Democrats<\/a> in the country to flip a GOP-held U.S. House seat in two weeks \u2014 sent a letter to Mackenzie<\/a> and the National Republican Congressional Committee on Sunday in response to a television ad accusing Brooks of \u201ccriminal\u201d misconduct.<\/p>\n In the ad, a narrator claims Brooks \u201cviolated state law\u201d by not having a workers compensation insurance policy for a lawn-care and snowplowing business he ran on the side of his career as a Bethlehem firefighter.<\/p>\n The business became a frequently promoted part of Brooks\u2019 resum\u00e9 this year as a first-time candidate with working-class bona fides. Mackenzie, a freshman Republican trying to hold on to a Lehigh Valley-based seat he narrowly flipped two years ago, looked to attack that premise with the ad \u2014 sharing the video on social media last week with the added commentary that Brooks is \u201cno working man.\u201d<\/p>\n But according to the Democrat\u2019s lawyer, the ad is based on a false report about Brooks\u2019 small business.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania law requires businesses to have a workers compensation policy in most cases in which the business has at least one employee. A story in July from the Washington Free Beacon<\/a> claimed Brooks appeared to violate that requirement for at least two years. It referred primarily to a LinkedIn page for Brooks\u2019 son that stated he worked at the company and managed others during years Brooks did not have an insurance policy.<\/p>\n Brooks\u2019 lawyer, however, wrote there were no other employees at the company during that period besides Brooks. The last employee stopped working for Brooks Lawn Care two months before the policy lapsed in November 2017, making it a sole proprietorship that was not required to have the policy, the lawyer wrote in the letter obtained by The Inquirer. <\/p>\n He called on Mackenzie\u2019s campaign and the National Republican Campaign Committee to pull down the ads and post a retraction online by 9:30 a.m. Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are now on notice that these statements are false and defamatory,\u201d wrote James C. Lamb, of Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock. \u201cAny further broadcast or distribution of them is publication with knowledge of falsity that will be regarded as actual malice.\u201d<\/p>\n Mackenzie\u2019s campaign and the NRCC did not immediately provide a comment Sunday.<\/p>\n Cease-and-desist letters are not uncommon<\/a> in the heat of high-profile campaigns. Many are ignored as the candidates continue to spend millions and Election Day approaches.<\/p>\n Brooks\u2019 letter is the second known cease-and-desist<\/a> request made by a Pennsylvania congressional candidate in four competitive races this year that could help determine which party controls the House.<\/p>\n Bucks County<\/a> Democratic challenger Bob Harvie<\/a> sent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick<\/a> a cease-and-desist<\/a> in July after the Republican incumbent began portraying him as being under investigation by the FBI. The letter did not stop the claims, and Harvie went on to file a defamation lawsuit<\/a> against a political action committee making those statements to benefit Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n The matchup in the 7th Congressional District \u2014 which covers the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos \u2014 has become the most expensive congressional race in Pennsylvania this fall, with $29 million in ads promoting and attacking the candidates since August, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact.<\/p>\n Mackenzie defeated a three-term Democratic incumbent by a mere 4,000 votes of 403,000 cast in 2024 as President Donald Trump<\/a> helped Republicans<\/a> across the state. Two years later, nonpartisan election ratings experts consider it the most likely of four competitive Pennsylvania seats to flip again \u2014 largely because of Trump\u2019s unpopularity and the Democratic Party\u2019s confidence in Brooks, who they eagerly recruited to run last year.<\/p>\n Mackenzie has leaned into both his support of Trump\u2019s agenda and the attacks on Brooks\u2019 background. <\/p>\n