Congressman Kanjorski’s stimulus problem

Last year, Pennsylvania Democrats voted in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi and their leadership in favor of the nearly $1-trillion stimulus bill. Soon after passing the wasteful spending package, an oversight commission was assembled in Pennsylvania to help monitor how the money was being spent. Both the Republican and Democratic congressional delegations appointed representatives to the panel.

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) was appointed as the Democratic representative to the Pennsylvania Stimulus Oversight Commission, but records we…

February 25, 2010 at 2:09 pm | Comments (4)

O’Brien wants 10 forums with Kanjorski

Even by the standards of today’s campaign debate challenges, this one might be aiming high.

Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien’s congressional campaign is seeking 10 candidate forums with incumbent Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) between now and the May 18 primary day, allotting two for each of the counties in the district. The request was made in a letter Tuesday from O’Brien’s campaign manager to Kanjorski’s campaign manager.

“In this critical election year,” campaign manager Justin…

February 23, 2010 at 3:11 pm | Comments (8)

LEFTOVERS: More on the 12th, Cook downgrades Kanjorski, Rohrer on the ‘rebellion’

The pieces are almost done coming together in the 12th Congressional District. Friend-of-the-site Alex Roarty pAlex also tells us that state Representatives Jeff Pyle (R-Indiana) and Dave Reed (R-Indiana), as well as state Senator Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland), are no longer in the picture. And emThe Daily American/em a href="http://www.ourtownonline.biz/articles/2010/02/18/somerset_news/news/local/news115.txt" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.ourtownonline.biz']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ourtownonline.biz%2Farticles%2F2010%2F02%2F18%2Fsomerset_news%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Fnews115.txt','reports')" target="_blank"reports/a that Westmoreland County Commissioner Tom Ceraso is beginning to circulate petitions to get on the primary ballot as a Democrat./p
pWith the key players seeming to be mostly determined, we’ll offer up our take on the current field soon. Stay tuned also for a deeper look into how both parties will be picking their candidates for the special election to finish the late Congressman John Murtha’s term./p
pMeanwhile, emCook Political Report/em has downgraded Congressman Paul Kanjorski’s (D-11) chances of winning reelection, changing a href="http://www.cookpolitical.com/charts/house/competitive_2010-02-18_13-58-05.php" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cookpolitical.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cookpolitical.com%2Fcharts%2Fhouse%2Fcompetitive_2010-02-18_13-58-05.php','its+forecast')" target="_blank">its forecast in the 11th District from “likely Democratic” to “leans Democratic.” This will surely be played up by Kanjorski’s primary opponent, Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien, who has been making an electability argument a central part of his campaign argument.

And underdog conservative candidate for governor Sam Rohrer had something to say about GOP chairman Rob Gleason’s

February 18, 2010 at 11:30 pm | Comments (3)

O’Brien handicapping Kanjorski’s chances at ‘zero’

Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien is keeping up the electability argument.

O’Brien, who’s mounting an underdog primary challenge to Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11), says the longtime incumbent just can’t win a general election two years after he barely won in a Democratic sweep year.

“There is zero chance Paul Kanjorski defeats Lou Barletta. Zero,” O’Brien told Politico. “I may be wrong about that, but I’m not good at negative numbers. Republicans are giddy about this…

February 4, 2010 at 11:54 am | Comments (2)

After late entrance, Barletta has $52K; still in debt

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta only had about a month to raise money for his third congressional run before the door closed on 2009. In that time, racked up about $60,000 in donations, finishing the year with about $52,000 in cash on hand, according to

February 1, 2010 at 7:30 am | Comments (0)

Kanjorski enjoys big fundraising edge over O’Brien

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) had almost $975,000 in campaign cash at the end of last year, giving him a war chest almost nine times the size of his primary challenger’s, according to campaign finance data.

Kanjorski raised about $233,000 in the last three months of 2009, according to full story

January 29, 2010 at 11:47 am | Comments (2)

O’Brien says he’s raised $200K

Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien said Tuesday that his congressional campaign had raised more than $200,000 last year, finishing 2009 with about $110,000 in cash on hand.

O’Brien, who is challenging Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) in the May primary, has

January 26, 2010 at 7:07 pm | Comments (3)

O’Brien is on the air

Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien is up with his first campaign commercial of the 11th District Democratic primary, a 30-second spot in which he vows to bring jobs to the region.

“We need work,” O’Brien says in the ad, embedded above. “I have a six-year-old, a four-year-old and one on the way. And they’re going to have jobs when they get older, right here in Pennsylvania.”

The campaign said the ad was running on cable…

January 25, 2010 at 8:44 pm | Comments (0)

On financial reform, Kanjorski gets an indirect Obama boost (Updated)

Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) received something of an indirect boost from the White House Thursday when attacks from a primary opponent who accuses him of being too close to Wall Street, the president’s seemingly new-found interest…

January 21, 2010 at 8:17 pm | Comments (1)

O’Brien: Kanjorski is ‘protecting Wall Street’

Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien sought Thursday to frame his primary against Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) as a contest between Main Street and Wall Street, asserting that campaign finance reports to be published this month would prove who is “protecting Wall Street, and who is protecting Main Street.”

“He hasn’t supported working families in our region because he is too busy protecting Wall Street,” O’Brien told pa2010.com after

January 7, 2010 at 4:00 pm | Comments (6)