Pat Meehan, the Republican candidate in the 7th Congressional District race, has criticized his Democratic opponent, state Rep. Bryan Lentz, D-161, of Swarthmore, for “ghost-voting” during legislative session.

The Meehan campaign raised questions about Lentz after sending a spy to Harrisburg, who observed another legislator cast a vote on Lentz’s behalf at least seven times. “Ghost-voting” is the practice of having another legislator cast a vote on another legislator’s behalf and is technically a violation of House rules.

Lentz admitted that he had other legislators vote for him, but said it was because he was busy working on two other bills. “To the extent I was not in my seat, I was busy working on other things,” he said.

The Meehan campaign said this was another example of broken promises from Lentz, a two-term state legislator. When Lentz ran for office in 2007, he said he wanted to reform the practice of “ghost-voting.”

“This is just another example of Bryan Lentz saying one thing and doing another,” said Bryan Kendro, Meehan campaign manager.

Lentz clarified that the reform he pushed was to stop legislators from voting when they weren’t even in the building. Lentz was in the building on Tuesday – just away from his seat during some votes.