Thursday, December 03, 2009

Will he or won't he


Shira Toeplitz reported yesterday in CQ Politics that Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta will make an announcement next Wednesday about his plans to run yet again for Congress.


Vince Galko sent out an email yesterday:


“In recent days many of you have reached out to me or to Mayor Barletta directly to inquire about his potential candidacy in Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District. Thank you for your interest and patience. This is an important decision and Mayor Barletta is giving it the strong consideration it deserves. As he has said many times, Mayor Barletta is focused on the City of Hazleton and its budget. He is also working on some very exciting projects for the city.”


Congressman Paul Kanjorski's longtime campaign adviser, Ed Mitchell, confirmed Monday that the 13-term Congressman has yet to make a statement about his re-election plans -- although he added that he's campaigning as if he is running for re-election.

"The Congressman has not made a statement about running next year, but I can tell you he's raising funds for a campaign and working very hard to represent his district by creating jobs, fighting for affordable health care for all Americans and protecting Medicare and Social Security."


My bet is that he makes the race. Why hold an event to say you're not running?

23 comments:

Tom Borthwick said...

I'm betting that Kanjo's indecision is why Corey O'Brien doesn't ever even mention he's running against him. Corey is banking on Paul Kanjorski not running.

But Kanjo is ALWAYS on TV and he's sponsoring significant legislation that is very populist. So why wouldn't he run?

Anonymous said...

Can this indecisive SOB from Hazelton every make up his fucking mind about anything. He did this last time too. What a #$#@$ a*(hole

Anonymous said...

Who is he kidding? Of course he is a candidate. Only once in my life time can I recall a potential candidate calling a meeting to announce he was not a candidate and that was Atty Mike Cefalo. He got everyone all hopped up for his run, he called a meeting and said he isn't going to run. People were livid that he made such a cheap personal PR move that he killed any future shot a public office. Lou the candidate Barletta will announce his run for Congress simply because he can't take no for an answer from the voters. NO LOU ..... get it ..NO!

Anonymous said...

Actually Anon didn't Sen. Chuck Hagel have a press conference to announce he was NOT running for President?

Anonymous said...

God won't he go the f*() away!!! Please!! Pretty Please!!!

Stephen Albert said...

I'm sorry, but Lou Barletta reminds me far too much of a Know Nothing Party candidate, circa 1856. Great trick coming from an Italian Catholic.

This could be a hell of an election...

Barletta - Ethnic/Race baiting opportunist

Kanjorski - Ethically challenged & entrenched Washington insider

O'Brien - Not even qualified to be mayor of Wasilla, Alaski

Anonymous said...

And the mayor of Wasilla who could see Russia from her front porch became governor of Alaska and a Candidate for VP of the United States ...... Better get uesed to calling Mr. O'Brien, Congressman O'Brien!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Tom Borthwick, just looked at your blog and I have a question. You seem to laud Mike Washo but criticize O'Brien for the same stuff Washo has been party to--county layoffs and spending cuts. Sounds like you just have an axe to grind with O'Brien, no?

Anonymous said...

HE will make a great congressman just read today's article on the city's budget, http://www.standardspeaker.com/news/city-troubled-but-mayor-guarding-possible-rescue-plan-1.461294
ok here we go
1. 15% garbage fee increase
2. 70% property tax increase
3. 18% earn income tax increase

now this Mayor can try and blame everyone from our Creator to Congressman Kanjo, but Lou you have been the Mayor for the last 9 years. you OWN it.
so everyone continue to support Lou, see how he gets in your pants!!!

McGruff said...

If Hazleton received as much money as WB/Scranton the tax issue would be a non issue. What was unemployment on Jan 1, 2009 and what is it now? What has Kanjo accomplished with his senority? What has he taken for himself? How is that banking crisis going? How many more bankruptcies do we need to see? Ohhh that auto industry bailout is going real friggin well. What dealerships were taken off of Motorworld? How many jobs were lost? Was Kanjo there to help those people? Do you realize that from Hazleton to Scranton there is only one Cadillace dealership to remain? Yet, they want to tax any "Cadillac" health plans out there. You people don't even realize that in 2011 most OTC remedies will not qualify for your FSA cards. Prilosec NADA Maalox NADA Motrin NADA...Ohh Kanjo and Obama are a TEAM!

McGruff said...

How is Afghanistan going for Obama?? Where is our middle class tax cut? The same place the property tax cut is in PA??? If you don't have health insurance you will be fined!!! I thought that was the purpose of health reform...to cover everyone...well we got to 94%...how about the other 6% who can't afford it.. they get fined??? Folks get educated...Kanjo wants to break up big banks who are too big to fail..how about a government that owns everything...are they too big to fail???

McGruff said...

Did you see the Realtors ad in the local newspaper?? How about how much money they gave and more importantly..why??

KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 10/14/1997 500.00 97032513060
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/01/1998 1000.00 98033374954
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 08/28/1998 500.00 98033550159
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 09/29/1998 3000.00 98033620491
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 08/18/1999 1000.00 99034812947
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 03/20/2000 2000.00 20035420374
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 10/20/2000 5000.00 20036551172
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 04/04/2001 1000.00 21990103301
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/15/2001 1000.00 21990197143
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 01/24/2002 3000.00 22990401886
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/24/2002 5000.00 22991206971
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/26/2002 -5000.00 22991206971
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/27/2002 5000.00 22991206971
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/16/2003 2000.00 23991438723
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 07/18/2003 1000.00 23991701270
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 11/12/2003 2000.00 23992487280
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 07/29/2004 5000.00 24962086068
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/28/2005 1000.00 25980564178
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 09/27/2005 1000.00 25971155711
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 10/06/2005 1000.00 25971459805
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 11/15/2005 2000.00 25971604853
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 04/27/2006 -2000.00 26950107586
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 05/04/2006 2000.00 26960139906
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 09/19/2006 5000.00 26960501352
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 05/11/2007 1000.00 27930810922
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 08/29/2007 1000.00 27990586922
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 12/07/2007 3000.00 28930014963
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/25/2008 1000.00 28991488798
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 08/13/2008 4000.00 28932881646
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 12/18/2008 1000.00 29930018909
KANJORSKI, PAUL E.
VIA PENNSYLVANIANS FOR KANJORSKI 06/19/2009 4000.00

Anonymous said...

McGruff, Was all of that necessary?

Anonymous said...

McGruff talks about everything but why his boy Louie raised taxes, taxes on the poor, the middle class and the elite.....this is Americas Mayor, here is what you get..... you get increased taxes.... you get less services..... you get screwed!!!!!

so if McGruff is making a connection between campaign contribtions and influece, what does it say about the money LOUIE got???????

oh yea he is above all that. lol

Anonymous said...

oh boy the ampitheather in Hazleton is in trouble. look here,
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Bentley_rsquo_s_to_add_amphitheater__hotel_12-05-2009.html

now what will Louie do? just like the solar farm he is going to announce as his "recovery plan" for the woes of the city. there is NO sun today, and it gets dark at 4pm. complicated the Mayor says, DUMB i say.......

Mayor, you are desperate..... it shows.

Big Dan said...

Aren't the Hazleton taxpayers millions in debt because of Barletta?

Big Dan said...

McGruff: a lot of what you say may be true about Obama...BUT, the bailouts started with Bush/Paulson, Bush/Cheney started the wars (on lies), Bush cut the taxes on the rich during the wars he started (voodoo economics), Bush/Cheney started torturing people and said "America does not torture", I can go on for a while. I think the 8 years of Bush/Cheney caused a lot of what we're seeing now. Republicans like to blame the previous president for everything when it's a Democrat...and the present president for everything when it's a Democrat.

Both parties are corrupted. A lot of what we're seeing now is fallout from 8 years of Bush/Cheney paying more attention to foreign countries than to American citizens.

Obama is starting to do the same thing.

Obama continues the Bush bailouts...Obama continues the Bush wars...

Obama said he was for single payer, now he's against it.

Obama is continuing the torture, Obama is continuing the wars, Obama is continuing the bailouts, Republicans should LOVE Obama! I'm disappointed. I'm not disappointed enough to vote for a Republican, though. Maybe a 3rd party.

Big Dan said...

Half the "troops" in Afghanistan and Iraq are private army, Blackwater in particular, thanks to Bush/Cheney. btw, they make about 10x what are boys in the REAL military are paid, read this:

Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy
Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/01/blackwater-201001

Thank you George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld for the Blackwater mess! The war that, according to Donald Rumsfeld, would take "a few weeks"...8 years later and trillions later and 3 billion a week later...

Big Dan said...

Your taxes are going to rightwing Evangelical Eric Prince, the head of Blackwater USA, now renamed Xe. Just like DIEBOLD renamed themselves Premier so we'd think they're a different company.

Big Dan said...

The in-depth Vanity Fair profile of the infamous owner of Blackwater, Erik Prince, is remarkable on many levels--not least among them that Prince appeared to give the story's author, former CIA lawyer Adam Ciralsky, unprecedented access to information about sensitive, classified and lethal operations not only of Prince's forces, but Prince himself. In the article, Prince is revealed not just as owner of a company that covertly provided contractors to the CIA for drone bombings and targeted assassinations, but as an actual CIA asset himself. While the story appears to be simply a profile of Prince, it might actually be the world's most famous mercenary's insurance policy against future criminal prosecution. The term of art for what Prince appears to be doing in the VF interview is graymail: a legal tactic that has been used for years by intelligence operatives or assets who are facing prosecution or fear they soon will be. In short, these operatives or assets threaten to reveal details of sensitive or classified operations in order to ward off indictments or criminal charges, based on the belief that the government would not want these details revealed. "The only reason Prince would do this [interview] is that he feels he is in very serious jeopardy of criminal charges," says Scott Horton, a prominent national security and military law expert. "He absolutely would not do these things otherwise."

Is Erik Prince 'Graymailing' the US Government?

Anonymous said...

Big Dan,
you are correct about the Bush administration and the right wing conspiracy in this war.
None other than America's Mayor was personally wined and dined at the White House with our shameful Pres Bush. it shows you the political thinking shared by both Bush and Barletta.
you are correct, Hazleton does owe millions with many more millions potentially at risk for his conservative philosophy!
His supporters want to hammer Kanjo, and he isnt pure, but look at what Barletta has done in the City,

SHAMEFUL, SINFUL AND SCARY.....

PoorRichard said...

OK, this appears to be a serious conversation so I would like to throw in my 2 cents. I'm just finishing Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater -- The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Read just the first hundred pages and I have no doubt you will take on a fear that something horrible is taking place. The training and financing of what could be the world's best trained and heartless army that ever existed. If I let my thoughts wonder, I could very easily see a private army that could change our way of life.

This is no joke my friends, Erik Prince owner of Blackwater is a wealthy, intelligent zealot on a mission and those three characteristics are a formula for trouble. Prince being a former Navy Seal has been professionally trained to do what has to be done to complete the objective.

Anonymous said...

where can i sign up?