Role at the time: 2026 Democratic House candidate in Pennsylvania
Mixed or conditional
Statement summary
Brooks accepted camera use to catch suspects while rejecting retention of innocent drivers' information.
“If they could use the Flock cameras to catch bad guys, that's fine by me. But there's no reason they should be storing innocent people's info”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Battleground congressional candidates in Pennsylvania talk Flock camerasOriginal candidate interviews and quoted campaign statements; syndicated text
Why we used this label
The reference point is whether networked license-plate reader systems such as Flock should exist and be used. Brooks said using the cameras to catch suspects is fine but that there is no reason to store innocent people's information. Accepting use while objecting to retention fits Mixed or conditional.
Role at the time: Democratic nominee for U.S. House, Pennsylvania's 7th district (statement issued by his campaign spokesperson)
Condemned
Statement summary
In a statement to the Morning Call on September 15, 2026, Brooks campaign spokesperson Benny Stanislawski called the Iran war "a reckless war of choice" that Rep. Ryan Mackenzie supports, grouping it with cost and health care critiques ahead of the candidates' October 21 debate.
“Bob will debate Ryan Mackenzie on WFMZ on October 21 and looks forward to contrasting his record of service to his community as a 20-year Bethlehem firefighter, youth baseball coach, and snow plow driver against Mackenzie's record of jacking up costs, ripping away health care, and supporting a reckless war of choice in Iran.”
The campaign characterizes the war as reckless and a matter of choice and faults the incumbent for supporting it, a clear opposition position stated on Brooks's behalf.
Networked automated license-plate cameras can assemble searchable records of vehicle movements. Candidates and officials disagree over whether to ban the systems, keep them with limits, or defend them as investigative tools. This tracker separates outright bans from narrower restrictions.
Where members of Congress and 2026 midterm candidates stand on the Iran war, which Congress has not formally authorized, based on their votes on war-powers resolutions, campaign statements and public remarks.
