O’Brien rolls out a local jobs plan

Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien called for sweeping investment in local infrastructure Thursday, laying out the first policy position of his primary challenge to Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11).

At events in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, and later in a policy statement and a phone interview, O’Brien said his “Project Main Street” plan would replace aging infrastructure, bury utility lines, widen sidewalks and renovate small business facades. He indicated that much of the costs, which he …

January 7, 2010 at 3:48 pm | Comments (0)

Barletta: Kanjorski doesn’t have Obama this year

NEW YORK—Republicans were pretty confident they would unseat Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) last year. If the mood at Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta’s reception here Friday is any indication, they’re almost cocky this time.

Amid chatter of things being different in Barletta’s third run against Kanjorski this decade, Republicans took solace in one key political change: Barack Obama will not be on the ballot.

“There’s no Barack Obama this year,” Barletta told pa2010.com during a brief …

December 11, 2009 at 5:58 pm | Comments (3)

Analysts see another close race in 11th District

Political watchers from Washington to Harrisburg widely considered Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) to be the most vulnerable Democrat in Congress last year, but that didn’t stop Kanjorski from beating every prediction and …

December 10, 2009 at 7:30 am | Comments (1)

Dems say Barletta’s old news… and raised taxes

After Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta once again …

December 9, 2009 at 4:57 pm | Comments (0)

Kanjorski camp: ‘Barletta is looking for strike three and you’re out’

Congressman Paul Kanjorski’s (D-11) campaign was quick to react Wednesday to Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta’s announcement that he …

December 9, 2009 at 12:30 pm | Comments (1)

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 already on the attack.

Despite those obstacles, Barletta sounded optimistic in his video announcement, which …

December 9, 2009 at 12:17 pm | Comments (1)

Barletta to decide on congressional run next week

By this time next week, we should know whether or not Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta will make a third run in the 11th Congressional District.

Responding to a flurry of inquiries, Barletta’s senior political adviser e-mailed reporters to say an announcement would come next Wednesday. He did not hint at which way Barletta, who narrowly lost to incumbent Democrat Paul Kanjorski last year, is leaning.

“This is an [important] decision and Mayor Barletta is giving …

December 2, 2009 at 9:00 pm | Comments (4)

In deciding whether to run again, Barletta has campaign debt to retire

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta may very well run for Congress a third time next year. But first, he’s got a little $250,000-problem to take care of.

That’s about how much campaign debt Barletta has on the books, according to campaign finance data. And with his top political adviser saying a final decision on whether or not to run should be coming before Christmas, Barletta is turning his attention to retiring the debt from his previous …

November 25, 2009 at 9:00 am | Comments (4)

Holiday pickings

A couple of quick notes before Thanksgiving:

1. Interesting to see that The Rothenberg Political Report now ranks the Senate race as a p2. Interesting also to see that Jim Gerlacha href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/11/gerlach-scoring-points-on-the-campaign-trail/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F11%2Fgerlach-scoring-points-on-the-campaign-trail%2F','isn%22t+giving+up+quite+so+easily')" target="_blank" isn’t giving up quite so easily/a against Tom Corbett. I’ve always felt Gerlach was potentially the stronger candidate.  Corbett’s lead reflects insider support rather than voter enthusiasm—it will be fascinating to see if it survives./p
p3. Who is Lou Barletta kidding by saying a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2009/11/in-deciding-whether-to-run-again-barletta-has-campaign-debt-to-retire/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2009%2F11%2Fin-deciding-whether-to-run-again-barletta-has-campaign-debt-to-retire%2F','he%22s+not+sure')" target="_blank">he’s not sure about running in the 11th District? If he’s not going to run, why is he talking about it? The best way to retire his old campaign debt is to win this time around. Having essentially tied Paul Kanjorski in the worst Republican year in memory, won’t he have a …

November 25, 2009 at 8:57 am | Comments (0)

WEEKEND LEFTOVERS: Yeakel’s with Sestak, a Corbett conflict, a Barletta sighting and more Rohrer

In the hustle-and-bustle of our late-week traveling, here’s a few items that slipped by pa2010.com Central.

Lynn Yeakel, who came close to knocking off Senator Arlen Specter in 1992, is, not too surprisingly, giving her support to the man who hopes to beat the Republican-turned-Democrat next year. CQ Politics p“I’ve known Joe for four years and he has the character and integrity to represent our party and our Commonwealth in Washington,” Yeakel said./p
pOf course, the Specter campaign was quick to point out that Yeakel had kind words for Specter when he switched parties earlier this year./p
p“Obviously, I’m delighted that he’s making this move,” Yeakel a href="http://www.observer.com/3315/lynn-yeakel-isnt-angry-anymore" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.observer.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.observer.com%2F3315%2Flynn-yeakel-isnt-angry-anymore','told+The+New+York+Observer')" target="_blank"told emThe New York Observer/em/a at the time. “I think he’s always been more of a moderate.”/p
pNice, but she did leave herself wiggle room: “Unless there’s somebody else in the Democratic primary who, for whatever reason, I found myself more in agreement with, I certainly would support him,” she added, saying specifically that she didn’t think Sestak would run./p
pstrongMeanwhile,/strong friend-of-the-site John Micek got a great tip on a fundraiser for Tom Corbett, where a member of the host committee was none other than Timothy Carson, a vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which is being investigated by Corbett’s office. This should give the Gerlach folks more ammunition for the conflict-of-interest meme, and we’ll be looking into it more ourselves./p
pstrongIf at first you don’t succeed,/strong try again, then try again. That’s what Hazleon Mayor Lou Barletta might be thinking, as he considers whether or not to run against Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-11) for a third time. Most pollsters and political-watchers expected Barletta to unseat Kanjorski last year before a wave of Obama supporters helped push Kanjorski to reelection. Now we read that Barletta will a href="http://www.politicspa.com/politicspa-reports-barletta-eyeing-early-dec-decision-on-campaign/1593/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.politicspa.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicspa.com%2Fpoliticspa-reports-barletta-eyeing-early-dec-decision-on-campaign%2F1593%2F','decide+whether+to+make+another+run+later+this+month.')" target="_blank">decide whether to make another run later this month.

And a few days after we reported that state Representative Sam Rohrer (R-Berks) …

November 7, 2009 at 7:06 pm | Comments (5)