Different election, same issue for Critz in the 12th

The contentious issue of …

July 1, 2010 at 1:11 pm | Comments (1)

Burns held back more than $150K before special

Despite competing in a nationally-watched special election that was expected to come down to the wire, Republican Tim Burns kept a lot of gas in the tank.

Burns, who lost the 12th District special election last month, had more than $155,000 in the bank as of June 7, according to …

June 22, 2010 at 8:50 am | Comments (2)

Over-the-top tactics unnecessary for GOP

I read with some confusion of pIt seems to me Republicans have a clear, simple argument to make in the 2010 elections. President Obama was elected on a promise to end the war, fix the economy and create a new, less polarized political style. None of these things, to say the least, has happened./p
pDo you want two (or six) more years of this, or don’t you?/p
pAttempts to personalize the race, or make it a referendum on hot-button issues like a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/06/leftovers-no-standing-ovation-from-barletta-kanjorski-owes-dccc-dues/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F06%2Fleftovers-no-standing-ovation-from-barletta-kanjorski-owes-dccc-dues%2F','immigration')" target="_blank">immigration, gay rights, etc. are beside the point and carry a strong risk of boomerang. They are, moreover, unnecessary. Lawyers learn to make emotional appeals when the facts and law are against them.

When the facts are in your favor, why bother?

June 21, 2010 at 12:13 pm | Comments (7)

Pelosi lessons for GOP in the 12th

Few things unify Republican congressional candidates as much as their dogged, public criticism of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Even before she championed such legislation as health care reform and cap-and-trade energy bills, many GOP viewed Nancy Pelosi as an electoral boogieman, a polarizing figure whose agenda could form the basis of their political comeback.

But the defeat of Republican Tim Burns in the 12th District special election last month has raised questions about whether repetition …

June 14, 2010 at 7:00 am | Comments (8)

Burns campaign chief won’t stay for Round 2

With a rematch looming in November, Republican Tim Burns will soon be getting a new campaign manager. Tadd Rupp, who ran Burns’ unsuccessful special election bid against Democrat Mark Critz last month, has left the campaign, according to a Republican insider familiar with the campaign.

Rupp himself would not discuss his departure on the record, and a campaign spokesman wouldn’t comment specifically on the staffing change. The Republican insider signaled that Rupp had planned earlier …

June 8, 2010 at 4:30 pm | Comments (3)

Warning, but no electioneering penalty for Critz

A local elections supervisor in western Pennsylvania has decided that Democrat Mark Critz was improperly inside polling stations on the day he won election to Congress last month, but the same elections supervisor stopped short of saying Critz engaged in illegal electioneering and the congressman will only receive a warning.

The decision from Cambria County Elections Supervisor Fred Smith, …

June 8, 2010 at 2:50 pm | Comments (2)

Cambria GOP files electioneering complaint against Critz

Following up on Election Day allegations, the Cambria County Republican Party has formally filed a complaint with the local elections board accusing newly-elected Congressman Mark Critz (D-12) of improper electioneering inside polling places on the day of his May 18 special election victory.

The complaint, …

June 7, 2010 at 1:23 pm | Comments (2)

Spinning numbers in the 12th District

Since their loss in the high-profile 12th District special election a couple weeks ago, Republicans have taken to claiming that high Democratic turnout from the party’s competitive Senate primary is to blame for their defeat on a national stage.

Whether or not the facts back up that assertion is another story, and the early numbers indicate otherwise.

The claims have come from both party officials and the Republican candidate, Tim Burns, who will again face …

May 31, 2010 at 3:34 pm | Comments (5)

LEFTOVERS: Critz sworn in, Steele says GOP will win, the Saidel robo-call

Democrat Mark Critz is now a congressman. The longtime John Murtha aide officially stepped into his late boss’ shoes on Thursday, being pMeanwhile, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele says Critz shouldn’t get too comfortable. Despite the fact that his party took a beating in the special election, Steele says wealthy businessman Tim Burns will prevail in his November rematch against Critz. Steele blamed the fact that Democrats had higher turnout because of their competitive statewide primaries. “In November, we’ll get that seat back because, guess what, independent conservatives get to play then and that will be a very different race,” Steele Sunday during “This Week” on emABC /em(see video below)./p
pAnd lastly, there’s one thing that sat in the empa2010.com Central /eminbox for far too long: the mysterious robo-call that targeted Jonathan Saidel in the hours before he suffered what looks like a devastating loss in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor. Saidel may still get a recount against state Representative Scott Conklin (D-Centre), and most of the blame for how things turned out has to fall on his campaign. But one factor, however small, may have been the robo-call. Phones in Philadelphia received the robo-call, in which a woman who says she’s backing Doris Smith-Ribner in the race asks if “Saidel is running for controller or for grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.”/p
pThat’s a reference to a brief controversy from the early 1990s, when Saidel said he opposed school busing plans to send children to “parts of the city that look like East Beirut.” Shortly after, then-City Councilman Michael Nutter said he thought Saidel was “running for city controller, not grand wizard.” It remains unclear who put out the robo-call, and Smith-Ribner has said she had nothing to do with it. But the Saidel campaign wasn’t happy./p
p“To suggest that Jonathan Saidel, of Jewish heritage and a champion of civil rights for his whole career, has anything to do with the KKK is disgusting,” campaign spokesman Marty Marks a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/Saidel_Slammed_In_Campaign_Robocall_Linking_Him_To_KKK.html" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.philly.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.philly.com%2Fphilly%2Fblogs%2Fcityhall%2FSaidel_Slammed_In_Campaign_Robocall_Linking_Him_To_KKK.html','told+The+Daily+News')" target="_blank"told emThe Daily News/em/a. “It’s politics at its worst.”/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/LtGov_robocall.mp3" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F05%2FLtGov_robocall.mp3','Listen+to+partial+audio+of+the+call+here.')" target="_blank">Listen to partial audio of the call here.

May 23, 2010 at 5:03 pm | Comments (11)

Critz wins special election in boost for Dems

JOHNSTOWN—Democrat Mark Critz, a longtime aide to John Murtha, won the special election to succeed his late boss in the 12th Congressional District Tuesday, beating Republican Tim Burns by a surprisingly healthy margin in a race that was closely watched at the national level.

Polls right up until the election had forecast a very tight race, but Critz ended up prevailing with more than 53 percent of the vote, compared to about 44 percent for …

May 19, 2010 at 5:10 am | Comments (8)