The money primary: Carney and Kanjo edition part deux

With Hackett thrown in.

I got a piece of franked mail from PA CD-11 incumbent Paul Kanjorski that tells me about all the votes he has cast to oppose illegal immigration. Does Lou Barletta have him worried? Judging by his latest FEC filing probably not. He raised $368,792 this quarter and has $1.2 million cash on hand. For all the speculation that State Rep John Yudichak or Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty mounting a primary challenge stoked by me and others, it's not going to happen. And Barletta still has a $153,670 debt left over from his last run. Barletta is good at running up debt and by the time he gets done appealing the unconstitutional immigration ordinance Hazleton will be in the red for the next 20 years. I hope some Rebublican runs against Kanjo because I hate unopposed elections. Right now that looks unlikely.

Chris Carney has $589,268 cash on hand after raising $774,023. The thing that jumps out is the the NRCC has spent over $35,000 on negative ads against him. He has also received the PAC largess as has Kanjo.

Chriss Hackett is reporting $246,810 cash on hand with only $500 in expenditures. The numbers are a bit tempered when you see that $118,000 came from the candidate. But 100 grand from individual contributors in a month is impressive.

Dan Meuser announced after the filing deadline and it appears none of the other candidates have raised the required $5000 that obligates them to file.

Brett has the rundown on the rest of the PA delegation

The money primary: Carney and Kanjo edition

With all the attention on the gazillions of dollars that the Presidential candidates have raised the first quarter fundraising totals of our local Congressmen show they have also been raking in the bucks.

My favorite freshman Chris Carney pulled in almost a quarter of a million according to the FEC. At this pace he will have $2 million by the next election in 2008. He'll need it as the 10th disrtict of Pennsylvania is top target of the GOP. No Republican filed a finance report but there is plenty of speculation on who will challenge him. The latest name I hear is US Attorney Thomas A. Marino and the Joe Peters boomlet seems to be petering out. Retired Honesdale state rep Jerry Birmelin may take a shot at it and David Madeira spends a lot of energy writing to the local papers attacking Carney. I don't think former Lt Governor Bill Scranton lives in the district but you don't have to according to the Constitution. Anyway, the 2008 Republican primary should be fun.

And Luzerne County's own Paul Kanjorski added over $100,000 to his war chest and has a cool million in the bank. That might scare Hazleton's Mayor forever Lou Barletta into running for statewide office. But the GOP has another attractive candidate waiting in the wings.