Manan Trivedi has never held political office and it's beginning to show. Trivedi, the surprise winner in Tuesday's Democratic primary, better get up to speed if he intends to give U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach a legitimate run for Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District seat.

Gerlach is a seasoned pro when it comes to campaigning, having fought back tough Democratic opponents in all four of his Congressional runs.

Trivedi at least has to get his facts straight before criticizing Gerlach. Claiming Gerlach supported the Iraq War when Gerlach wasn't even in Congress when the vote was taken is an amateurish mistake.

Trivedi also needs to find out more about his opponent's voting record before recycling Democratic Party talking points that previous opponents attempted to use against the moderate Republican.

For example, linking Gerlach to George W. Bush was tried unsuccessfully by losing Democratic challengers Lois Murphy in 2004 and 2006 and Bob Roggio in 2008.

It's time for Trivedi to come up with some new material.

From the Jim Gerlach for Congress campaign:

Manan Trivedi, far-left liberal for Congress, yesterday ignored the clear facts while attacking Congressman Gerlach for voting to send U.S. troops into Iraq. The problem for Trivedi is that Jim had not even been elected to Congress on October 10, 2002 when the U.S. House of Representatives voted to authorize President Bush to use military force against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. While Jim was not in Congress when an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and then-Senator Joe Biden authorized sending troops into Iraq, Gerlach has been a strong supporter of our military to ensure they have the resources, funding and equipment to complete their mission.

"It's a new year, a new face, but the same old recycled attacks from a liberal Democrat so out of touch with the families, small business owners and seniors in our district that he has to resort to distorting the truth," said Gerlach Spokesman Mark Campbell. "It's pretty clear that Mr. Trivedi is following exactly the same failed script, with the same failed attacks that voters in our district have turned their backs on time and time again. The only thing new about Mr. Trivedi is the record-time it took him to ignore the facts."

Additionally, as Mr. Trivedi predictably dragged out the tired attack lines against George Bush, as well as comments made in today's Daily Local News stating the "Jim Gerlach votes with blinders on and in lockstep with the Republican Party," Trivedi ignores the fact that Jim has a long documented record of being one of the most independent Republicans in Washington. As an example, National Journal identified Jim as one of the "centrists" in the US House of Representatives (2/27/10).

"What we didn't hear from Mr. Trivedi was any push-back on the far-left policies he has publicly supported which our campaign outlined yesterday. That's because he is in full agreement with the misguided, big government agenda of the far-left and MoveOn. No wonder he wants to talk about George Bush - once voters understand the far-left policies he supports, his campaign will collapse before it even gets started," added Campbell. "Again, Trivedi's belief that the government didn't go far enough in taking over our health care system, his support of amnesty for illegal immigrants, and pledging never to be a part of the moderate Blue Dog Democrat coalition in Congress means this tax-and-spend liberal is way out-of-step with this district and unelectable in November."