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Barletta: Washington is ‘ignoring us’

Just over a year after narrowly losing in his bid to unseat Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11), Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta on Wednesday announced that he would seek Kanjorski’s job for the third time this decade, raising the stakes in an 11th District race that Republicans remain convinced they can win.

After weeks of speculation, Barletta made his announcement on a video on his Web site and a conference call with reporters. His decision came while he still has about $250,000 in past campaign debt to retire and with Chris Paige, another Republican candidate, already on the attack.

Despite those obstacles, Barletta sounded optimistic in his video announcement, which became available about 10 a.m. after technical difficulties appeared to have briefly shut down his Web site.

“Our elected officials in Washington D.C. have not just forgotten about us, they are ignoring us,” Barletta said. “Where is the accountability?”

During the video, which began with scenes from his concession speech last year, Barletta harped on his desire to push for “sane and sensible” policies to restore the local economy, create better jobs and guarantee retirees pensions and benefits.

“Not only have we lost millions of jobs, not only has our economic situation gotten worse, not only have our spending and our debt exploded, and not only do the foreign threats staked against the United States seem more dangerous,” he said. “But our nation has lost that optimism of 13 months ago.”

Nearly every independent poll last year had predicted a Barletta victory, before a wave of support for Barack Obama helped push Kanjorski to a narrow win. With last year having been arguably the worst political climate for Republicans since Watergate, most political watchers are again expecting a competitive contest.

December 9, 2009 at 12:17 pm

--John Manganaro

Tags: Chris Paige, Lou Barletta, PA-11, Paul Kanjorski

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