Lou Barletta is worried

By all the metrics of a political campaign Lou Barletta (R) is a lock. He is the incumbent that has a million dollar campaign warchest with  a winning issue on immigration that appeals to the fears of people. Gene Stilp (D)  has no money or party support but has an army of supporters and has run an unconventional campaign.

 Like many people I dismissed Gene Stilp's chances in the Democratic primary against Bill Vinsko. He is known as the guy with the big pig and other stunts and I didn't take him seriously. He proved me wrong.

Lou Barletta has noticed. In his 2 TV ads he repeats the lie that Stilp wants to cut Medicare by $716 Billion. Lou's first ad  and second. If he wasn't worried he would be running warm fuzzies instead of attack ads.

Another sign of panic from the Barletta camp is trying to drum up controversy about Tim Holden endorsing Stilp or not.  Like anyone gives a shit about what Tim Holden thinks. Most endorsements are good for a press release and not much else.

This may be the  surprise of the night.

The WVIA debate

Watch 2012 PA 11th Congressional District Debate on PBS. See more from WVIA Special Presentations.

Meet the candidate

Republican PA  17th Congressional District candidate Laureen Cummings has been an energizer bunny visiting all the counties of the district for every event she can attend.  She has hit all the GOP County picnics plus a bunch of other stuff. I ran into her at the Luzerne County GOP picnic. You can read about it on her campaign Facebook page with lots of pictures. She has attended Blogfest in the past and promises to be there again along with her campaign manager Jim O'Meara.

On Saturday she will be in Pittston Twp at Bar on Oak, 900 Oak St. 6-8PM. Detail at her website.

She is handing out this nifty card taking an subtle shot at her opponent. 

Democrat Matt Cartwright hasn't slacked off since the primary after knocking off Blue Dog Tim Holden. He has also been also been all over the place even introducing VP Joe Biden in York. Details and pictures at the Cartwright campaign  Facebook page. After serving as the Gort42 Special Correspondent at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte he went rolling down the Delaware River.

Congressional Candidate Matt Cartwright Campaigns on the Delaware

 

 Cartwright has a big shindig planed for Nay Aug Park in Scranton, September 29th starting at 1PM. Details on his website. 

He will be at many other places before then.  

 

Matt Cartwright, a candidate for the 17th Congressional District, will speak at Keystone College Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. in Evans Hall, Hibbard Campus Center.

Matt Cartwright also tells me he will be at Blogfest.

Kathy Kane out as Luzerne County Dem Chair

The Valley Scanner reports that Wilkes-Barre Controller and former city council member then chair Kathy Kane calls it quits:

In a letter dated April 25, Kathy Kane resigned as chairman of the Luzerne County Democratic Committee effective May 25, 2012.

According to the letter, Kane is stepping down to "run for an office" in June. What office? Your guess is as good as ours. With Kane's recent track record of supporting losing candidates, her supporters will be staying away in droves.

In 2013 the county offices that are up is 5 seats on the county council and Controller. Look out Walter.

 The county Democratic party has had rough time of it the last few years with all the Democratic office holders going to jail. In 2007 under the leadership of Mark Buffalino the Dem's made a clean sweep of the county row offices but in 2009 they lost 2 out of 3 after he left to run for Judge and lost . In 2011 they only won 6 of the 11 Luzerne County Council despite an overwhelming registration edge and Republican Stephanie Salavantis knocked off Jackie Mo in the DA's race.

In this past election Kane presided over a meeting of the county executive committee that turned into a farce when Tim Holden was endorsed for Congress over Matt Cartwright in the 17th CD race.The headline out of the meeting was that Holden  was that the Luzerne  County Democratic Committee unanimously endorsed Tim Holden but that was not was not the case. A parliamentary maneuver changed the result as 2nd District Chair Casey Evans explained. In the primary election Cartwright won Luzerne County by almost 3 to 1.

In the run up to the election there was some controversy when there was a dispute about what event was scheduled first. 120th State Rep Phyllis Mundy (my 3rd favorite) hosted an event for Matt Cartwright in West Pittston on the same night that Kane had a rally for Luzerne County Dem's at the Ramada in Wilkes-Barre. Phyllis assured me that she didn't know about the county committee meet up or she would have had it on another day. 

PoliticsPA had a recap of the 17th CD race and  I would add that Cartwright had a better ground game. In Luzerne County Cartwright had an office in Wilkes-Barre that was buzzing with people working the phones and the Holden "HQ" was an empty store front with some signs in the windows. Before the election I was called by 2 volunteers from Cartwright but only  a robo call for Holden paid for by the AFL-CIO. On election day I got a remember to vote call from the Cartwright camp because they identified me as a supporter. Great job Shane!

Looking to the fall: Congress

Right now you have to say that the 2 GOP freshman have the upper hand along with the Dem in the open 17th CD.

Democrat Phill Scollo will be taking on Tom Marino in the 10thCD. Scollo has assembled many of the campaign staffers that helped Chris Carney win his 2 improbable victories in 2006 and 2008 but has not done well fundraising. Add in the fact that the district was made more Republican in the latest gerrymander and Mr. Scollo has a big hill to climb. Mr. Marino has had a second bout of cancer recently and some people wanted me to use his illness to score points contrasting his opposition to the Affordable Care Act with the health coverage he receives. I thought that was ghoulish as there will be plenty of time to discuss health care policy before the election. I wish Congressman Marino a full and speedy recovery.

In the 17CD Matt Cartwright will be the overwhelming favorite to defeat Republican Laureen Cummings. Money will be no object for Cartwright in this newly drawn Dem favorable district. Money will also not be a factor in Cummings campaign, she doesn't have any, raising just $305 according to her latest FEC report.Tim Holden ran a terrible campaign that overreached in his attack ads then went back to the Social Security canard when he got called out on it. Cartwright billed himself as the hometown boy and a "Roosevelt Democrat" for those of us who know who FDR was. With Congress polling at a 10% approval rating I think an anti-incumbent sentiment played a part in his win. Holden has been in Washington for 20 years but couldn't point to one piece of significant legislation he authored. A few other incumbents also lost on Tuesday.

Gene Stilp surprised me. He and Bill Vinsko worked hard but Stilp just out hustled him. Neither one had a lot of money but Vinsko pissed his away on consultants. I wasn't too surprised that Stilp won this race but the 10 point margin was a bit of a surprise. His name recognition and the pink pig won the day. The combination of  new district lines and the anti-incumbent mood may make this one competitive. Stilp wants Barletta to sign a pledge to run a clean campaign but even if he does plenty of outside groups could still spend all kinds of money if it starts to look close. The recent unwritten rule is that you need about $1 million to run a competitive congressional race. After the Citizens United ruling that should be modified to say you need about a million to be spent on your behalf .

Victory Party

If you want to celebrate with your candidate tonight here is where to find some of them.

Patrick Murphy
  

FOP Lodge 5, 1331 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123

Kathleen Kane  

Radisson Lackawanna Station starting at 8 pm.
700 Lackawanna Ave.
Scranton, PA 18503

Matt Cartwright

Scranton Hilton, Medallion Room, 8 pm.

Tim Holden

???

Bill Vinsko

 American Legion, 23 West Broad Street , Nanticoke , Pennsylvania starting at 8:30 PM

Prediction in the 17th CD

In the PA-17th CD race I think Matt Cartwright will win. I think he has run a better campaign and campaigns do matter . The only call I got from the Holden camp were robo calls from the AFL-CIO that annoy us all. An actual person called me from the Cartwright camp and he is running a better ground game than Holden.  An empty W-B "HQ"  tells me all I need to know. The Cartwright camp has done a great job of reaching out to voters and bloggers while the Holden brain trust seems to be relying on endorsements from the Democratic establishment. Governor Rendell endorsed Holden which is good for a press release and not much else. The Cartwright camp is crowing about endorsements from the local papers which don't hurt but many other candidates went down in flames after being the pick of the editorial boards. The one endorsement that carries weight with me is Kevin Blaum's .

Our online poll of Gort 42 readers is predicting a 6 point Cartwright win. I agree. I think there is an anti-incumbent sentiment out there. The polls always show that Congress is unpopular but the local yokel is still popular. Tim Holden is not our local guy.

Meet the candidate

CV:

State Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, and state Rep. Mike Carroll, D-Avoca, will hold an old-fashioned rally for U.S. Rep. Tim Holden, D-St. Clair, who is running for re-election in the 17th Congressional District.
It will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Valenti's Restaurant, 1180 Wyoming Ave., Exeter.

Ground game

Bob Caruso took me on a tour of downtown Wilkes-Barre yesterday. The Matt Cartwright for Congress office on Public Square was full of tables, phones and people, The Tim Holden HQ had signs in the windows but the doors were locked and looking in the windows there was nothing in the place. I mean there was nothing in the place! No tables, phones, people or anything else. It looked like it was being rehabbed for the next tenant..

PA-17th CD update

The damage is done.Now Tim Holden wants to play nice.

The past few weeks the Holden campaign has been up on the air saying Matt Cartwright is a rich guy who is bored with his life who gave money to corrupt Judges. Yesterday that blew up in their face.

Endorsements for Holden and Cartwright

Just about every local Democratic elected local official and county committee has endorsed Congressman Tim Holden in the PA-17th CD primary. The latest include Senator Bob Casey who had a statement read by former Congressman Chris Carney at an event in Scranton. Other than the AFL-CIO that brings money and boots on the ground most endorsements are worth a press release and not much more. Some nods could actually hurt such as the Lackawanna and Luzerne County Democratic Committees after people have seen so many elected local Democratic officials pleading guilty to corruption charges and landing in jail. One of the Captains Obvious college professors agrees with me "Casey carries a lot of credibility, but in terms of delivering any votes, I have doubts it'll deliver significant numbers of votes," Baldino said.

And let's not forget that Holden has taken money from the Kock Brothers . From NEPartisan Yes, Tim Holden actually took money from the Koch Brothers. Five minutes on Google, and any American who doesn’t want our environment destroyed, all labor laws eliminated, no limits on Wall Street traders, our judicial system in chains, and the federal government out of business so the age of robber barons can return would reject anyone backed by them.

On the other hand Matt Cartwright has landed some endorsements that bring money, boots and media.

LuLac: The Scranton area’s local postal union, Local #101 of the American Postal Workers Union, threw its support behind Matt Cartwright today. The Senate is slated to take up a bill to destroy the Post Office because the Republicans think it should be run like a business instead of the public service that it is.

MoveOn.org: MoveOn has more than 12,000 members in the 17th district, and of those who participated in the endorsement vote, a decisive 84% voted to endorse Cartwright...
As part of their support for the Cartwright campaign, MoveOn’s thousands of members in the district will help provide the grassroots support—including volunteer boots on the ground – that Cartwright needs to win.

League of Conservation Voters Action Fund ‘Proudly’ Endorses Matt Cartwright

“Matt Cartwright has fought to hold corporate polluters accountable to protect Pennsylvanians from the hazardous chemicals released in natural gas extraction,” said LCV Action Fund President Gene Karpinski. “LCV Action Fund is proud to endorse Matt Cartwright because he understands that the policies needed to grow America’s economy and keep our competitive edge are the same policies that will protect the air we breathe and the water we drink for generations to come.”

The LCV is backing up the endorsement with a $200,000 ad buy that will run until election day. From PoliticsPA It’s not the first time Holden has earned the ire – or the media dollars – of environmental groups. In October, the political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council spent $100K to air TV ads knocking Holden, as well as Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Luzerne) over the Clean Air Act.

You can see my coverage of that here

If you watch the local TV news you will see this ad until Tuesday





This spot hits Holden on the issues unlike the personal attacks that the Holden camp has resorted to.





I would put up a video of the latest Holden ad but it is not on the campaign website and they don't have a YouTube account that I can find. Is Joe Trippi really running his campaign?

PA-17th CD poll

It's a tradition on Gort42 to put up some polls on the sidebar the week before the election. First up is the race between Matt Cartwright and Tim Holden in the 17th CD Democratic primary. Vote on the sidebar and tell me in the comments who you think will win.

Cartwright hits Holden ON THE ISSUES

Tim Holden has aired 2 TV spots going after Matt Cartwright about things that have nothing to do with the duties of a member of Congress. One was tapping into the emotions of the Kids for Cash or as I call it the Juvie Brothers scandal that worked very well in the last DA's race. Cartwright gave money to Conahan and Ciavarella just like many lawyers did well before we knew how evil they were. Another argument to choose judge's on merit but that is another post. The second said you should vote against him because he is well off financially, really. Maybe Matt should bring that boat north and park it at the slip in Nesbitt Park and rename it "Hung Jury."

Yesterday Cartwright started airing what is called in the business a contrast ad but it doesn't attack Holden personally but objects some of the votes he has cast.

Tim Holden voted no on the Affordable Care Act. The most important piece of social legislation that every Democratic President since Harry Truman has been trying to achieve. It's not perfect but it is a start. I don't know how someone can call themselves a Democrat then vote against denying health care coverage for 30+ million of people. Then there is the Haliburton loophole that just may poison all of our water.

At this point I was going to post the latest Cartwright ad from his YouTube site but when I tried to I got this.

Embedding disabled by request

WTF! I'm trying to broadcast your ad on my blog giving you some free media and I can't. Whoever made that decision should be taken to the woodshed.

I had a bunch of other points to make but I will skip it now.

Holden camp claims 10 point lead

Responding to the internal poll of Matt Cartwight's campaign showing him up by 6 points Tim Holden's campaign manager claims that Holden is up by 10.

Pennsylvania: Challenger’s Poll Shows Tim Holden Trailing

Eric Nagy, Holden’s campaign manager, said their own campaign polling showed the Congressman ahead — although he declined to give any more details about the survey.
“Our polling shows us up by 10 points, but we’re not taking any chances,” Nagy said. “We will run like we’re down 10 points.”

We all know to take internal polls with a grain of salt but it has been my experience that polling outfits that tell you what you want to hear instead of what is actually going on don't last long in this business. Credibility is everything since it costs about $20,000 to a Congressional District poll.

There seems to be other dynamics going on in this race. Holden is the longtime incumbent that has lined up all the endorsements from elected officials, labor unions and Democratic county committees. He seems to be winning the yard sign primary especially since Cartwright's turn into kites on a windy day. But most of the voters in this newfangled district don't know who he is and Matt Cartwright is the hometown boy from Moosic in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market. I don't know how much his TV show, The Law and You, raised his name recognition as I have never seen it. The Munley, Munley and Cartwright law firm spots can't hurt as far as putting his name out there even if you're like me and wish the ban on lawyer ads had never been lifted.

Then there is an anti-incumbent mood of the electorate.

I was thinking along the same lines but I don't want to be accused of plagiarism.

Steve Singiser in KOS

But, it would seem that the general level of discontent felt by the electorate has manifested itself in what can be described as at least a moderately hostile environment for incumbents. My educated guess? Mean Jean won't be the only incumbent out of a job by the end of this primary cycle, and that modestly "pissed off" mood in the electorate may well lead to a more volatile November at the House level than we previously might've guessed or thought. It may not be uniformly good news for Republicans or Democrats, by the way. I merely suspect that incumbents with halfway decent challengers might be more imperiled this year than most analysts are currently willing to admit.

This comment on my last post got my hackles up.

Where did they take this poll, Glenmaura? Do you print word for word anything Matt Cartwright sends you? A little while back you and another one of the far left blogs ran a story that read exactly same. The poll I heard about had Holden up by well over double digits. Anyway we can agree there is only one poll that counts and thats in 2 weeeks. Unfortunatly for Cartwright the campaign finance reports are due in a few days, then we'll see how much he raised and how much Mitt, opps I mean Matt put in from his own fortune. I'm sure it will be put down as a loan paid back at a nice interest rate.

I posted the PR without my own comments because I thought it was news and was pressed for time. I would be happy to do the same thing for the Holden camp if you guys would add me to your distribution list and I'm very surprised that an Internet savvy guy like Trippi doesn't have a staffer doing blogger outreach. The only Internet presence the Holden campaign has is trolling the comments of this and other sights like PoliticsPA. As far as another trendy lefty posting a similar story all I can say is that great minds think alike. You must be new to this blog as I have been accused of being a Republican more than once especially when I write about Luzerne County politics. The CFR's are inside baseball and I like the Glenmura and Mitt references, jolly good show chap. Well done.

Poll: Cartwright leads Holden

From the inbox:

Holden Falls Behind
Poor Poll Numbers Result in Desperate, Nasty Ads

MOOSIC, PA – Recent polling in Pennsylvania’s newly drawn 17th Congressional district shows Matt Cartwright leading Tim Holden with less than three weeks until the Primary. (The poll was conducted April 2-5 with 600 likely Democratic Primary voters.)

Matt Cartwright now leads 42-36 against the 20-year incumbent. The Cartwright campaign has not yet mentioned Holden in any advertising, while Holden has started his second negative ad, an obvious result of his own polling. Just as troubling for Holden is the fact that he is running in a district where his vote to create the Halliburton Loophole and his vote against President Obama’s groundbreaking Health Care Reform are highly unpopular.

“While I’ve been focusing on issues that affect the lives of the people I seek to represent, Tim Holden has focused on me,” points out Matt Cartwright. “He can’t win on his record, so he wants to tear me down. This is politics at its worst. The say anything, do anything approach to win at all cost. I learned from my father to always tell the truth and to never tear down another man just to build yourself up.”

Tim Holden has refused to hold any debates. He is in the middle of a two week congressional recess, yet his website lists an office opening on March 31st as his most recent campaign event.
“Again, if he discusses his voting record, he loses,” says Cartwright. “So he hides behind nasty TV ads. The people of northeastern Pennsylvania deserve better.”

Matt Cartwright is a Democrat, running for Congress in the 17th Congressional District, which now includes parts of Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe and Northampton Counties, as well as all of Schuylkill County. Cartwright is running for Congress to bring jobs to Northeast Pennsylvania, and make sure that corporations and wealthy Americans pay their fair share of taxes.

More Nonsense from Holden

Tim Holden is grasping at straws. After going after Matt Cartwright because he gave some money to the Juvie Brothers his hired gun Joe Trippi thinks that being successful in life is a liability. The spot also takes something Cartwright said way out of context. Do Holden and Trippi think that they can get away with lieing like Mitt Romney without being called out on it?


Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XII

In this ad Holden asserts that Matt Cartwright is bored buying new cars and has mansions and Condo's in Florida

The whole quote tells us something different

From Kos: "I've come to the point in my life that either I do it now or I don't do it… I'm 50 years old. I don't get a bang out of buying a new car anymore. I get a bang out of helping people."

I'm also north of 50 and those that know me realize that I can care less about the latest Gizmo. I don't even have a cell phone! Your're slaves to that machine.

Matt hit back on the Juvie Brothers nonsense

Meet the candidates

120th HD State Representative Phyllis Mundy is hosting a rally for 17th CD candidate Matt Cartwright on Thursday in West Wyoming. Phyllis is bucking the trend of the local county committees and other office holders that have endorsed Tim Holden. She has always gone against the grain that's why she has moved up in the rankings being my 2nd favorite state rep just behind the guy that introduced the Viagra bill.

Pittston Politics reports the powers that be will having a Happy Hour for Congressman Tim Holden on Friday, April 13th from 5pm-7pm at Bo Brother's Restaurant. Let's hope he shows up.

Thursday is going to be a busy day. Democratic 11th CD candidates Bill Vinsko and Gene Stilp will face off at Wyoming Seminary at the same time and the Luzerne County Democratic Committee has a rally scheduled at the Ramada on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre. So far Holden has refused to debate Cartwright.


Flyer from the Cartwright camp

Laureen Cummings for Congress Kickoff

My attention has been focused on the 17th Congressional District Democratic primary between incumbent Tim Holden and challenger Matt Cartwright which I will get back to shortly. The winner will face Republican Laureen Cummings in the fall.

Cummings will make a formal announcement on Wednesday.


Laureen Cummings, Republican Candidate for Congress, Pennsylvania's 17th District, will make her Luzerne County campaign announcement in front of the Luzerne County Courthouse at 5:30 PM on April 11.Laureen Cummings is a nurse and small business owner from Old Forge, Pennsylvania.

She is running for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District.Laureen will fight to restore our Republic. She wants to stop runaway spending, reduce our massive deficit, and end the intrusion of government into our lives.

Laureen will fight to repeal Obamacare. She agrees with most Americans that Obamacare is unconstitutional.

Laureen wants a responsible national energy policy. People are suffering with high energy costs while our natural resources are not being developed properly. This also puts our security at risk by our dependency on the Middle East.

Laureen will work to repeal Dodd-Frank. As a small business owner herself, she knows that repealing Dodd-Frank will encourage small business owners to grow their businesses and create jobs!

Laureen is a staunch Pro-Life candidate. She stands on the side of the unborn and the elderly.

Laureen is a strong supporter of 2nd Amendment rights. The right of the people to keep and bear arms should not be infringed.

Laureen wants to abolish the IRS. She supports instead the Fair Tax plan, an uncomplicated and fair plan that replaces our current Byzantine tax system with a national sales tax that eliminates federal income and payroll taxes.

Laureen will work to eliminate costly, unnecessary bureaucracy. Smaller government is essential to the future growth and prosperity of our Nation.

Laureen knows what it is to struggle in life. She worked hard to earn her nursing degree and later started her own home health care and staffing business. She is the mother of four grown children and the proud grandmother of three. She is passionate about assuring that we leave our children and grandchildren an America of greater opportunity and undiminished freedom. She is active in Pennsylvania politics, working hard to get people involved at the grassroots level.

Laureen Cummings is, and always will be, a fighter. Now she wants to fight for you by representing Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District in Washington, DC.

More about Laureen:
Founder of the Scranton Tea Party2003
NRCC Business Advisory Council Businesswoman of the Year
Two years of service as Secretary for the Greater Northeast Chamber of Commerce
Nominated to Who's Who among Woman
Active Republican Committeewoman


That will be followed by a Meet and Greet at the Naked Grape in Plains 6:30pm until 8:30pm. Her campaign manager tells me they have great chicken wings.

Tim Holden goes negative, Cartwright hits back

Congressman Tim Holden put a poll in the field last week that has apparently shown he is in real trouble. I haven't seen the numbers but judging by the reaction of the Holden camp they have gone into panic pass mode.

Hired gun Campaign Manager Joe Trippi who's claim to fame was the 2004 Howard Dean Presidential campaign has put out one of the most dishonest ads I've seen tying Cartwright to the juvie brothers scandal because he gave some money to Callahan and Ciavarella years before the 'kids for cash scandal' broke. It's interesting that the successor group of the Dean campaign, Democracy for America, has endorsed Cartwright.

Joe has to make a living and this line of attack helped Stefanie Salavantis become the Luzerne County District Attorney so he has some good local researchers. We will see how that works out.
So Cartwright gave $1375 to Ciavarella's retention effort just like many other lawyers which raises the question should judge's be elected or appointed after a vetting process. Judges on Merit has more to say on this subject. Conahan may not have been selected after a background check.


Instead of what is going out we should take a look at what is coming in.

DWT has a summery:

Holden, a Blue Dog has taken $688,999 from the finance industry and $414,997 from Big Oil and Gas. Holden has taken even more money from AgriBusiness and he's scooping up checks like mad this year to fight off his first serious electoral challenge ever. [One of the company's eager to keep Holden in Congress is AT&T, which has given House Republicans $896,121 thisyear and House Democrats $443,750. $5,000 of that went to Holden.

The Pennsylvania Progressive tells us about Holden's voting record:

He did not vote for the Affordable Care Act, voted against organized labor, for wars and their funding, for the National Defense Authorization Act, for the PATRIOT Act, FISA wiretapping and against homeowners trying to avoid foreclosure.

A Statement from the Cartwright campaign calls Holden a liar:

Holden Barely Holding On
Desperate TV Ad Not Just A Distortion - It’s 180° from Truth



MOOSIC, PA – With three weeks left until the April 24th Primary Election, Tim Holden has resorted to mud slinging. Perhaps the poll he conducted last week showed poor numbers, and he acted out of desperation. One thing is for sure, however, he forgot to do his homework.
Holden’s TV ad attempts to link Matt Cartwright with the notorious “Kids for Cash” scandal that plagued Luzerne County back in 2008, by citing old campaign contributions from the Munley, Munley and Cartwright law firm to the judges involved. (The firm has supported dozens of Democrats in the past 25 years.) But Holden’s “guilt by old association” tactic was done without knowing enough about the county or Matt Cartwright.
In the wake of the scandal, Matt Cartwright spearheaded the Juvenile Defense Lawyer Project in Luzerne County to ensure that juveniles were treated fairly by the courts and judges. In fact, in a Times-Leader article on June 11, 2010, Cartwright was “recognized for his leadership of the Juvenile Pro Bono Defense Program, which was created to guarantee pro bono counsel for juveniles that had been adjudicated by former President Judge Mark Ciavarella in the event their cases were retried.”
If anything, Matt Cartwright was a hero in cleaning up the criminal mess that these judges created.
“Tim Holden spent the past 20 years in Washington, and this is what he decided to talk about,” said Cartwright. “Of course, it is not surprising that Holden does not want to discuss the facts that he voted to create the Halliburton Loophole and against Health Care Reform. Further, in 2001 and in 2002 he voted with President George W. Bush more than any other Democratic member of Pennsylvania’s Congressional Delegation.”
Matt Cartwright is a Democrat, running for Congress in the 17th Congressional District, which now includes parts of Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe and Northampton Counties, as well as all of Schuylkill County. Cartwright is running for Congress to bring jobs to Northeast Pennsylvania, and make sure that corporations and wealthy Americans pay their fair share of taxes.
http://www.cartwrightcongress.com/
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR

Outside influences

Matt Cartwright has snagged the nod of the successor group of the 2004 Howard Dean presidential campaign Democracy for America that will urge it's members to send money his way. That Democratic wing of the Democratic Party thing is working out pretty well for him.

He also picked up the support of the Blue America PAC that has billboards up in the district but I haven't spotted one yet. They are reported to be in Lackawanna, Northampton and Schuylkill counties but not Luzerne county. If you see one please send me a picture and tell me the location.

In a story in the TL yesterday it seems that Tim Holden's spox Eric Nagy was answering a question that wasn't asked saying that Act Blue was a Super PAC. I said that was a lie and a distortion but I realize now it was not a lie but possibly an editing problem, my apologies Eric. The next time you are in town the Yonk and me will take you to Abe's Hot Dog's or Victory Pig Pizza with Chis Lilik to make up for that.


Today we found out that an actual Super PAC funded by a few millionaires is planning to spend big bucks to defeat Holden.

Super PAC Prepares to Spend $200K Each Against Holden, Murphy

This outfit is something of a mystery with most of the money coming from just 4 people. They are going after both Democrats and Republicans in safe districts that have primary challengers. So far they had success knocking of Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt in the Republican primary and got mixed up in another Republican primary in Illinois. The group also went went after Reps. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Jo Bonner (R-AL), Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), each of whom won his or her primary. 2 out of 6 ain't bad.

From the CFC website:

To put the voters back in control of the process, we must challenge long-term incumbents and hold them accountable for their deeds. Enough is enough. As our economic crisis deepens, as the federal bureaucracy continues to expand and as lobbyists gain still more power, we must apply leverage where we can: in primary election challenges to incumbent members of Congress.

During the 2012 primaries, American citizens will stand up as never before, expressing their opposition to an out-of-control Congress, and making their voices heard and their votes count. The people will become more powerful than the politicians. When the people once more have power, there is no problem—even those caused by Congress itself—that we cannot fix.

Then if you look at Tim Holden's FEC report you will see many outside infuences.

DWT has a summery:

Holden, a Blue Dog has taken $688,999 from the finance industry and $414,997 from Big Oil and Gas. Holden has taken even more money from AgriBusiness and he's scooping up checks like mad this year to fight off his first serious electoral challenge ever. [One of the company's eager to keep Holden in Congress is AT&T, which has given House Republicans $896,121 this
year and House Democrats $443,750. $5,000 of that went to Holden.]


And a Facebook page to go with it.

Cartwright airs a pair

17th CD candidate Matt Cartwright has 2 new TV spots up knocking the absurdity of the tax code.

Via PoliticsPA:

“If corporations can claim this as a business expense, don’t you think that working families ought to get the same tax break for their child care?”

Jet






Likewise, if businesses can write off limousines, restaurant bills and office furniture, Cartwright asks why a woman who retrofit a home for her elderly mother can’t get the same.

Limo