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Russell: GOP thought Burns would be ‘more co-optable’

JOHNSTOWN—Bill Russell is either at the beginning or end of a journey he’s been on for more than two years. In 2008, he emerged as a staunch critic of Congressman John Murtha, after Murtha infamously said that Marines in Iraq had killed civilians “in cold blood.” He became a darling of the conservative grassroots. He lost that year, but when Murtha passed away this year, Russell was poised for success.

Then the Republican Party found Tim Burns.

The GOP quickly settled on the wealthy businessman as its special election nominee, leaving Russell out in the cold. So now he spends his days campaigning in a Republican primary that lacks the profile of Burns’ simultaneous top-ticket contest. Getting voters to oppose the other guy on the same ballot they’re pulling the lever for him is exceedingly difficult, and Burns’ campaign has virtually ignored Russell in an an effort to keep the focus on the special election. Conventional wisdom is that Russell’s journey will end May 18. But a recent poll showed Burns barely edging out Russell in Tuesday’s primary, and Russell remains ever the happy solider, an Army veteran marching on with the kind of soft-spoken but earnest conservatism that has endeared him to some Republicans in western Pennsylvania.

The GOP convention that chose Burns as the special election candidate, Russell said in a recent interview, “firmly cemented by as the anti-establishment, anti-Washington candidate.”

“I don’t think he plans to be co-opted,” Russell said in his small campaign office here earlier this month. “I do believe the party was seeking him out because they thought he’d be more amendable to some of the back-room deals and more co-optable than I am.”

Russell acknowledged that he and Burns differ little on the issue, but continued his criticism of the party’s selection process, complains he was making even before Burns came out on top.

“The party bent over backwards to make it appear that they were not engineering the selection of Mr. Burns,” Russell said.

And as a small cadre of volunteers hustled around a table, Russell, with thin brown hair rounded by shades of gray on the sides, articulated a more pragmatic rationale for voters to back him Tuesday, one he’s been making as he traverses the far-flung disrict.

“If Mr. Burns loses the special [election],” Russell said, “it’s imperative that we have a top-rate horse running in November. So the safest bet is to vote for me.”

Russell’s two-plus-year crusade for a seat in Congress may very well end on Tuesday, a fate with which Russell seemed decidedly at peace.

“When you’re working toward something you really believe in,” he said, “it’s a lot easier to take the bumps and bruises along the way.”

May 16, 2010 at 4:59 pm

--Dan Hirschhorn

Tags: Bill Russell, PA-12, Tim Burns

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