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)

Dems frame 12th District special as a must-win… for GOP

On the eve of a special election being closely watched outside Pennsylvania, Democrats sought to frame the debate early, saying the 12th District contest is only a must-win for Republicans and apparently looking to preempt any possible narratives that might arise from a Democratic loss.

In an e-mail blast to reporters Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it’s “important to remember that only one election [on Tuesday] features a Republican versus Democrat.”

“The NRCC …

May 18, 2010 at 1:59 pm | Comments (5)

Buying the office?

It’s been conventional wisdom here in the 12th Congressional District that Republican Tim Burns’ ability to self-finance his campaign for the special election to serve out the remainder of the late Congressman John Murtha’s term in office was behind the GOP’s rationale to choose him over conservative grassroots favorite Bill Russell.

And considering the pBurns is hardly the first, and more than likely won’t be the last, political candidate to expend a great deal of personal wealth in an attempt to win office. Heck, in this primary season alone, two candidates seeking the Republican nomination in the 3rd District, a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/05/huber-loans-campaign-another-25k/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F05%2Fhuber-loans-campaign-another-25k%2F','Paul+Huber+and+Mike+Kelly')" target="_blank"Paul Huber and Mike Kelly/a, along with Democrat a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/05/trivedi-makes-a-late-game-loan/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2F2010%2F05%2Ftrivedi-makes-a-late-game-loan%2F','Doug+Pike')" target="_blank">Doug Pike in the 6th District, have done the same.

But that doesn’t mean that the practice shouldn’t give voters pause, …

May 18, 2010 at 11:12 am | Comments (4)

Clinton cuts a call for Critz

A day after pThe calls, funded by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, are part of the party’s final efforts to hold the western Pennsylvania seat in the special election succeed John “Jack” Murtha./p
p“Like Congressman Jack Murtha before him, Mark’s top priority will be to create jobs in western Pennsylvania, and he’ll always stand up for seniors and the middle class,” Clinton says in the call./p
pCritz faces Republican Tim Burns in Tuesday’s special election, and the race is ranked No. 1 on the a href="http://www.pa2010.com/congressional-power-rankings/" onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.pa2010.com']);return TrackClick("http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pa2010.com%2Fcongressional-power-rankings%2F','pa2010.com+Congressional+Power+Rankings.')" target="_blank"empa2010.com/em Congressional Power Rankings./a/p
pa href="http://www.pa2010.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/PA12WJC.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%2FPA12WJC.mp3','Click+here+to+listen+to+the+call.')" target="_blank">Click here to listen to the call.

May 17, 2010 at 1:28 pm | Comments (3)