Congressman Frank Harrison RIP

In the upheaval that followed Dan Flood's indictment and resignation in 1980 Frank Harrison was the 3rd person to win election to Congress to represent the PA 11th District following Ray Musto and Jim Nelligan. He lost the Democratic primary to Paul Kanjorski in 1984 who has been there ever since.

The local papers have obits.


Ex-Congressman mourned

Former Congressman Harrison dies

Congressman Kanjorski had this message:

“As we mourn the loss of Congressman Frank Harrison, I pass along my thoughts and prayers to his family and friends. Frank and I knew each other as college debaters. Since first meeting him, and throughout our professional careers, I have always respected Frank for his strong intellectual abilities. After his political career, he joined the classroom as a college professor where he benefited the education and lives of many students. He will be missed.”


Jim Nelligan:

“Frank was a very viable and tough opponent; a very bright guy,” Nelligan said. “I would like to offer my sincere condolences to his family.”


The best tribute to Frank Harrison and a recap of those turbulent times comes from our local political historian David Yonki:


Frank Harrison

Round three?

Kanjo at work


Congressman Paul Kanjorski has been a whirlwind of activity since he was reelected. The Picture above is from the signing ceremony with President Obama enacting the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. He wrote several provisions of the law that also included protections for Credit Unions. He teamed up with Congressman Chris Carney to get the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights enacted into law. I think that this law is a good start but much more has to be done. I suspect that the banks will raise other fees to make up for lost revenue. Here is some good advice. Just like Dan Flood before him Kanjo keeps bringing home the bacon. $3 million for the Luzerne County Transportation Authority to buy hybrid buses and other equipment through the stimulus bill, $10 million for the Pocono Medical Center, $138,000 for the Hazleton General Hospital and a bunch of money for new fire trucks in the area. My favorite is $950,000 to help fix up Coal Street Park in Wilkes-Barre although they should have included a new swimming pool for the kids in addition to a new facility for the Penguins.


Borys reported in Sunday's Scranton Times that Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta might take on Kanjorski a third time. He lost a close one last time after getting clobbered in 2002. The last time I talked with Mayor Lou he was looking at Lt. Governor run but things change. My analysis, for what it is worth, is that Barletta would easily win the GOP nomination and be Tom Corbett's running mate. The few times I have talked to Barletta I got the impression that he would rather be an executive instead of a legislator. Borys also speculated about the future of Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty wondering if he would run for Congress or Lt. Gov, etc. I previously reported that Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O'Brien is running for the seat.

On a side note the Scranton Times recently changed it's online format demanding money to read it's articles more than a day old. Since the same company owns the W-B Citizens Voice we can expect that it will follow shortly. The only work around that I can think of right now is to save an article that interest me on a Word Document or Google Doc then reference it later but that is a lot of work. The Times-Leader has been charging for stories more that 7 days old for a long time. I wonder how many people actually pay them to read old news?