It sucks to be Paul Kanjorski.The 12-term Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania's 11th District will face one of the most famous politicians in the state come November.
Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who rose to national prominence as a leader in the fight against illegal immigration, made it official Thursday. He will run against Kanjorksi in the fall.
"I've done as much as I can fighting illegal immigration as the mayor of a city," he told The Associated Press. "I need to take this fight to Washington, because that's where the problem needs to be fixed."
Congressional prospects for Pennsylvania Republicans brightened Thursday.
"I believe that it is important for our country to have the very best leaders representing us, and I have no doubt that Lou Barletta is that type of leader, said Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. "Lou Barletta's announcement that he is running for Congress is great news for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania and even better news for the people of the 11th Congressional District."
The Pennsylvania GOP got its head handed to it on a platter in 2006 when Republican incumbents were tossed out of office as part of the anti-Bush Democratic tide.
But the GOP has rebounded, finding strong candidates to run against the freshman Democrats who failed to deliver most of their campaign promises when they got to Washington in 2007. It's the do-nothing Democrats who will have to defend their records this time around.
And Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional District, where Republican Jim Gerlach has had a target on his back for three terms, looks safe for the GOP in 2008, especially with the Democrats prepared to wage a three-way primary battle of little-known candidates just to find a warm body to challenge Gerlach.
Back to Barletta. The Democrats are trying to downplay Barletta's appeal, saying he's a one-issue candidate, but that one issue is a winner in 2008. Americans are fed up with politicians who are unwilling to secure the nation's borders.
Behind the scenes, state Democratic leaders are shedding tears, the real kind, not the ones Hillary Clinton sheds after she loses a primary state.
That's Barletta flanked by his daughters Kelly, April, Lindsey and Grace during today's campaign kickoff announcement. (Photo credit: AP Photo, Aimee Dilger)
1 comment:
I wouldn’t be so fast to coronate Barletta just yet, Tony. Sure, I agree that the illegal aliens issue needs to be addressed, but let’s look at some other facts:
1)Besides this, what else has he done for Hazleton? It is still a dying, depressing coal town.
2)It appears that he grossly overstated the criminal problems caused by illegals, most of whom are not raping, pillaging, and plundering.
3)Many of the newer businesses that opened in the past decade were started by Latinos, and many of those people are fleeing the city. Do conservatives really want to elect a candidate that encourages small businessmen to pack up and move away?
4)When he took the stand in court to defend his policy, he came across as an uninformed, ignorant fool.
5)He comes across as a racist. If most of the illegals in Hazleton were Irish, would he be so willing to clamp down on them?
Lou Barletta is to illegal aliens what Ted Nugent is to the second amendment, and Republicans can and must do better.
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