Tag: Pennsylvania

This week, I came across the saying “Before you try to tell someone how much know, show them how much you care.” I think that sums up what every political candidate should do when trying to connect with voters.

Early last week, I spoke with a family in DuBois about my campaign and what they felt was the biggest problem they are facing. Without hesitation, the mother said “Mark, the rising cost of gas and heating oil is making it tough on my family.”. Another person told me when we talked about the stimulus checks that Washington will be sending out “I hope I get mine soon, I need another tank of oil to get through the cold months.”.

When you hear these two stories, do you think Washington cares and understands? Members of Congress touted when the stimulus package was passed “we’re giving back money to the people so they can go out and buy something”. The reality is that many people will use the funds to pay off existing debt or buy basic necessities. And, if everyone in Washington would be honest, the stimulus package was the incumbent members of Congress sending you a check in an election year so you’ll remember them in November.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL:

I am encouraged to hear from people that they are concerned about the issues I’m talking about. People are telling me they are tired of the federal government spending beyond its means and running up debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for. Regardless of political affiliation, citizens in the 5th district want fiscal responsibility. I am also hearing that people want a congressman who knows north central Pennsylvania and will deal with the problems of the region.

$350,000 SPENT IN 29 DAYS!!!!

The Centre Daily Times reported today that one of the Republican candidates has spent $350,000 in just 29 days of the campaign. That amounts to $12,068.96 dollars per day. Let’s put this into perspective, a person working at the current federal minimum wage of $5.85 per hour x 40 hours a week x 52 weeks in a year = $12,168 before taxes. Is this the type of person you want for your next congressman?

ENDORSEMENTS:

Our campaign was proud to announce the following endorsements during this past week: Keith Bierly former 4 term Centre County Commissioner, Mike Savage Rush Township Supervisor (Centre County), Jeff Pisarcik current second term Jefferson County Commissioner and Raymond Snyder former Mifflin County Commissioner.

FUNDRAISING:

The McCracken for Congress committee is planning a fundraising dinner in DuBois on Wednesday, March 19th. If you are interested in attending and have not received an invitation, provide your mailing address via email to mccrackenforcongress@verizon.net. Also, please tell your friends about our campaign and encourage them to visit our webpage http://www.mccrackenforcongres… where they can find a link to contribute to the campaign online via ActBlue.

QUESTIONS:

We welcome all questions from the progressive blogosphere.  We feel we are in tune with the expectations of what kind of Congressman we need.  Mark has the experience and desire to answer questions from 5th District residents and interested parties.

A FINAL WORD OF THANKS:

I want to thank everyone who sent along condolences on the passing of my father Blair McCracken. He was a lifelong, working man’s Democrat who fought for his country in World War II and was always a big part of my political campaigns. When I spoke with him in January and asked his advice about running for Congress, he paused for a few seconds, pointed his finger at me and said “whatever you do, if you get to Washington, don’t let them change you.”. That was the last advice he gave me and I won’t forget it.

Mark B. McCracken

Your Candidate For Congress

Cross-posted from dKos

We are up to 4 declared Democratic candidates in the hunt for the soon-to-be open 5th district seat. 2 of these candidates have declared in the last week, and I will rehash some of what I’ve written on the other 2 candidates as well, so that it is all in one place.

The latest person to enter the race (and the only female of all 12 candidates for the seat) is Lycoming College education professor, Darcy Gustafson. The CDT has coverage of the race and Gustafson’s announcement:

Patton Township Democrat and Lycoming College education professor Darcy Gustafson said Saturday she is circulating nomination petitions for the 5th congressional district seat and “testing the waters” before committing to the race.

“I would like to be the best candidate I can be,” she said from Pittsburgh, where she has enrolled in a course for political candidates. “If I’m not the winner in the primary, I want to be the best help I can be to whoever wins.”

At the end of last week, Kossack FISG brought us the press release announcing Mark McCracken’s entry into the race. McCracken is currently serving his second term as Clearfield County Commisioner. He was re-elected in 2007 with the most votes of the 4 candidates running. The other 2 spots went to Republicans. He serves on numerous county and regional boards and such, which you can see in his press release. Before being elected County Commissioner, he served 10 years on the Clearfield Area School Board. Clearfield County is a large, mostly rural county of roughly 83,000 people, and includes the city of Dubois. More about him from his press release:

Before entering politics, Mr. McCracken worked in the computer and information technology field from 1983 to 1988 with North American Refractories Engineering Department in Curwensville, PA and served as Director of Information Technology for Clearfield County Government from 1988 to 2004.

In announcing his candidacy McCracken said “I believe I have the experience necessary to serve this vast rural district in north central Pennsylvania. As county commissioner, everyday I deal directly with important issues facing all counties in the district including economic development and job creation, balancing budgets, controlling health care costs and dealing with constituent issues. I also work on a regular basis with officials from all levels of government including the state and federal.”

. . snip . .

Mr. McCracken also serves as chairman of the Northern Counties Heath Insurance Purchasing Cooperative Board. This board was organized in 2005 through the efforts of Commissioner McCracken working with commissioners in Clinton and McKean counties to form a multi-county health insurance purchasing co-op and create a self insured pool account. Participation in the co-op is up to 9 county governments and member counties are bringing health insurance costs under control which is saving tax dollars.

Here is what I’ve written on the other 2 candidates previously:

3-term Lock Haven Mayor Richard Vilello, a building inspector,  ran unopposed in the 2007 and 2003 elections for mayor. He was appointed in 2007 by Rendell as one of 3 co-chairs of The Governors Advisory Council on Rural Affairs, and also served on that body at least in some capacity going back to 2004. In addition, Vilello serves as the Central District Officer for the Pennsylvania League of Cities and Municipalities. I haven’t found anything about his stances on the issues specifically. In his announcement, he played up infrastructure issues:

“I think it’s time to send someone with local experience and quit wasting money,” he said. “Every day in the paper you read about millions and billions of dollars for this and that project, for fixing infrastructure all around the world, and we’re not fixing our own infrastructure.

“The local schools get stuck with No Child Left Behind, and the people who pass laws have never been in a school except when they sat behind a desk.

“The health care system is a mess and rural health care always gets the short end of the stick,” he added.

Journalist and 2-tour Iraq vet, Bill Cahir, has made some worrisome statements about “energy independence” and Iraq.

Like Peterson, Cahir said he also is an advocate of alternative energy sources.

“We need to invest more resources in domestic oil exploration. I also am a big supporter of nuclear power as a means of generating electricity,” he said.

Anyone who knows anything about Peterson knows that to say he was an “advocate of alternative energy sources” is a sick joke. Drilling and digging anywhere and everywhere – that’s what Peterson supported. I’m hoping Cahir was only trying to speak well of the retiring Peterson in this instance – and that he simply didn’t mention real alternative energies that he also supports.

On to Iraq:

“The Democrats in Congress don’t have the votes to override the president on this issue. But we have to look at the fact that we now have a number of things going our way in Iraq,” he said. “The surge (in U.S. military personnel) is going to run its course by July. The next president and the next congress will inherit Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

“As a two-tour veteran, I think I have ideas on where to go next with that mission. As a Marine reservist, I’m not going to criticize the commander-in-chief — I support the mission.

“We need to capitalize on the security gains we’ve made (in Iraq), rather than any kind of a rapid withdrawal. We need to honor the alliances we’ve developed with the Sunni sheiks who are supporting us, and take a look at what the sensible policies are right now,” Cahir said.

But there are some definite positives to Cahir as well:

Besides his military experience, Cahir enters the race with the most knowledge and experience on Capitol Hill of any of the candidates who have announced or who are considering the seat.

Before his career in journalism, which included writing for the Lebanon Daily News, Hanover Evening Sun, York Dispatch and newspapers in New Jersey and New York, Cahir worked as a staff assistant to Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee from 1990 to 1993, and as a staff assistant on health care issues for former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pa., from August 1993 until he left office in January 1995.

He was part of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s, D-Mass., labor and economic policy team that helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act and other laws.

And finally, to make a long diary even longer, Cahir, McCracken and Vilello have been making the rounds at county Democratic meetings. The CDT covers the Centre County meeting that happened Saturday:

A two-tour Iraq War veteran, Cahir (pronounced care) said the United States can’t quit Iraq overnight and leave the security of U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Lebanon in jeopardy. He said a bipartisan plan should be forged to get out without abandoning U.S. allies. “We can’t just kick over the apple cart and walk away from them,” he said. “I don’t think we should stay — we do have to map a way out.”

. . snip . .

He agreed with Cahir on Iraq. “You can’t just cut and run,” McCracken said. “You can’t let that whole region fall apart over there.”

Lock Haven Mayor Vilello said that since he became mayor of the old industrial city in 2000 he has helped to steer it through a $6 million downtown beautification project and to establish a summer concert series with a good and growing reputation.

Lock Haven University is the fastest growing of the 14 state universities, he said, the airport that Piper abandoned is home to 55 small businesses and the company First Quality Tissue has invested $550 million to put the city’s old papermill industrial site back into the economy.

He said rural health care is a major concern. “We have to invest in rural health care because we can’t drive 60 miles to State College when there’s a big emergency,” he said.

Woo-hoo! A Democrat has stepped up to take a crack at this long-shot race. His name: Bill Cahir. I don’t know anything more about him than this article, but he sounds just like the right kind of candidate.

State College native and Iraq war veteran Bill Cahir, who was motivated by the Sept. 11 attacks and war on terror to join the Marine Corps reserves at age 34, plans to seek the Democratic nomination for the 5th Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring Republican U.S. Rep. John Peterson.

One potential weakness is that he doesn’t currently live in the district.

Cahir enters the race with strong State College roots – his father, John Cahir, was vice provost and dean of undergraduate education at Penn State from 1993-2002. His mother, Mary Anne Cahir, was the university’s chief fund-raiser in the Philadelphia region.

But Cahir hasn’t lived in the district since college.

Currently living in Northern Virginia, he plans to return to his birthplace, Bellefonte, to fulfill his dream of running for Congress.

“I have to be candid, I’m moving back to my hometown in the hopes of representing my home district and at the most critical time in our nation’s histroy,” said Cahir.

Cahir’ possible primary opponents include the current mayor of Lock Haven, Richard Vilello Jr., and Keith Bierly, a former Centre County commissioner and current chairman of the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board with many connections. Neither Vilello nor Bierly have officailly announced their candidacies.

More background on Cahir, who served in Ramadi and Fallujah from August 2004-March 2005 and again in Fallujah from September 2006-April 2007:

Before his career in journalism, which included writing for the Lebanon Daily News, Hanover Evening Sun, York Dispatch and newspapers in New Jersey and New York, Cahir worked as a staff assistant to Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee from 1990 to 1993, and as a staff assistant on health care issues for former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford, D-Pa., from August 1993 until he left office in January 1995.

He was part of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s, D-Mass., labor and economic policy team that helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act and other laws.

He’s also steeped in federal education issues including No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Act from three years writing for Education Daily.

Update: Another dem, Richard Vilello, has officially entered the race, as well as 2 more Republican hopefuls. See the Centre Daily Times linked above for coverage or my diaries at DKos.

To the small group of people who care about the inner workings of the lovely 5th Congressional district of PA, in the wake of John Peterson’s retirement announcement:

Republican State Sen. Jake Corman, the prohibitive favorite to succeed Peterson, will NOT run for the seat.

“Ultimately, as exciting as it would be to serve in the United States Congress and help shape public policy on a national level, the decision came down to what is best for my family,” Corman said in the news release.

more on the flip

The most often-mentioned possible Democrat, State Rep. Scott Conklin, has also ruled out a run for the seat.

So who’s left? I’m betting these people were waiting to see if Corman or Conklin got in.

Patton Township Republican Matt Shaner, who was defeated in the Republican primary two years ago for the 77th District state House seat, said Monday that he is thinking about it, too. “I am strongly considering running but no final decision has been made yet,” Shaner said.

State Rep. Martin Causer, RBradford, a second-term state House member who represents Cameron and Potter counties and part of McKean County, said he is considering running for the 5th District seat.

He said Peterson did such a good job representing rural Pennsylvania that “whoever takes that position next is going to have a really hard act to follow.”

Veteran Democratic state Reps. Dan Surra, of Clearfield and Elk counties, and Mike Hanna, of Clinton and Centre Counties, are thought to be potential Democratic candidates for the open congressional seat. Neither could be reached for comment.

So we may hear from them soon now that Corman has announced his intentions.  Shaner is a young Santorum-wannabe. Yuck. Scarnati is another possibility on the Republican side. I’m not sure why he isn’t mentioned in the article.

UPDATE: More speculation from the CDT on this race. One of Peterson’s aids is interested, as well as a few prominent Centre County Republicans. They don’t want to split up the Centre vote, so they are waiting for State Rep Kerry Benninghoff to decide, and go from there.

On the Dem side, the mayor of Lock Haven is considering. Still no word from Surra or Hanna.

UPDATE2: Via Christopher Walker below, for the Repubs, Benninghoff is definitely out and Shaner is definitely in.  

Check out this release posted on the DCCC’s site on the Congressional race heating up in Pennsylvania’s 3rd.  U.S. Rep. Phil English, a relatively uncharismatic candidate, has managed to coast to election victories over the last twelve years as a result of dysfunction within Erie’s Democratic party (spoken as a former resident of Erie, not as an expert!). 

But when Kyle Foust, Chair of the Erie County Council, announced his interest in running against Rep. English, the waves started to work through English’s infrastructure.  Foust has a big family name in Erie (his father was a legend in Erie local politics), and the district has more registered dems than republicans. 

From the DCCC site:

Judging by the reaction of English and his staff, it’s clear they consider Foust a credible challenger. English expressed “surprise” that Foust would acknowledge interest in a congressional run, considering it’s a year away. And Brad Moore, the Erie County Republican Party chairman and a former English aide, wrote in a news release, “The ink isn’t even dry yet for Councilman Foust’s position on the November ballot to represent his County Council district for another term, and he is already declaring he intends to run for Congress.”

That’s not subtle. The political chase is on.

Bethany Hafer, daughter of former Pennsylvania State Treasurer (and gubernatorial candidate) Barbara Hafer, has thrown her hat into the ring against U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy.  See here. 

From The Pittsburgh Channel…

MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. — Bethany Hafer — the daughter of former auditor general and state treasurer Barbara Hafer — says she plans to run for Congress next year.

Her target, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, is in his third term in the 18th Congressional District.

Hafer, a Democrat, lives in Mount Lebanon. She used to teach science in the Moon Area School District, but the 35-year-old is now vice president of her mother’s Harrisburg consulting firm, Hafer & Associates.

The new Representatives from PA, elected with slim majorities, have a problem, but there’s a solution.

Problem:

We all know what’s happening with congress and fundraising.  It’s become a frequent news story: no sooner are members of the 110th Congress in office than they are required to raise millions for their reelection.  It’s just a question of math: raise as much as possible or you’ll lose, because your opponent will be doing the same thing.  I wrote about Jason Altmire’s experience (D, PA-4) earlier. 

This Tuesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer had a story on the problem Patrick Murphy (D, PA-8)faces:

There’s no such thing as a governing period now? It’s one campaign into the next.  It’s really two full-time jobs – being a congressman and being a candidate.

Jason Altmire and Patrick Murphy are just two vulnerable freshmen who need to raise money to stay in office, from day one.  To win the next election, they are already in full campaign mode, 24/7.  There’s a tension between having time for policy making and raising enough money.

Even though he won in 2006, Altmire was outspent almost 2 to 1.  Murphy raised $2.4 million, a huge sum, but Michael Fitzpatrick had over $3 million at his disposal and that race was decided by 0.6% of the vote (1,521 votes).  Clearly each had a strong message that worked with voters.  Still, with such slim majorities they would have a better chance of securing their reelection if they could spend the next 20 months legislating and communicating their work with constituents without the huge workload of raising several million dollars.

Meanwhile, the Inquirer highlighted another PA congressman’s dilemma.  Joe Sestak (D, PA-7) said:

I know fund-raising is important? but more important is outreach and getting people to know me.? Voters are like sailors.? They want you to look them in the eye, to grasp their concerns, to know you care.

As the paper points out, the former 3-star general knows how to lead and inspire, if he’s given the support and resources to do it.

Solution:

This morning the Philadelphia Daily News endorsed legislation for public financing of congressional elections introduced on Tuesday by a bicameral, bi-partisan team featuring Sens. Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter, and Reps John Tierney, Todd Platts and Raul Grijalva.

The Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, Adam B (on Daily Kos) and a host of other bloggers and journalists are endorsing public financing at the state and national level.  This is great news for the state of the nation, and we need to make sure the momentum grows.

Under public financing, the 2008 races could be spent talking to constituents door-to-door and at town hall meetings, instead of at high-dollar events with a handful of people who are already convinced to vote for them.  In fact, Durbin’s proposals encourage candidates to choose grassroots campaigning because they can qualify for public funds with small donations of $5 from average citizens.  Under public financing, Jason Altmire, Joe Sestak and Patrick Murphy would both have been given matching funds to level the playing field.  How many more voters could they reach in November 2008 with that kind of freedom?

This is my first posting on Swing Space Project.  I’m here not only because I care about the outcome of elections – I do – but because how we elect them matters, and what they stand for matters too.

And I’ll come right out and say it: while it’s exciting that a new wave of members of Congress just swept into office in 2007, I’m worried that the way campaign finance works and the rigors of fundraising will keep them-and their colleagues in Congress and in statehouses-from realizing their full potential as representatives.  So I’m here to voice my concern.  We need “clean elections,” or the full public financing of elections, as a way to restore faith in the political process and to make sure that a wide range of folks can run and win.

Jason Altmire in PA-04 was featured in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story on February 5th describing his fundraising prowess since November 7. 

Just three months after his victory over incumbent Melissa Hart, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire is keeping a brisk fund-raising pace.

Sounds like he’s no slouch-and that’s critical if he wants to remain in his seat in a battleground district.

The Post-Gazette continues:

The freshman Democrat from McCandless collected more than $74,000 between the Nov. 7 election and the end of the year, according to campaign finance data released last week.

But note the juxtaposition, because then he said this:

I’d support and work hard to pass any bill that takes money out of politics.

And he did this:

Mr. Altmire signed onto the “Voters First Pledge” of the Public Campaign Action Fund, Common Cause (where I work), Public Citizen and other groups who argue that public financing of elections would allow politicians to spend less time raising money and more time tending to the concerns of constituents.

Altmire is far from the only one.  So many of the Democrats who ran and won seats in November campaigned on the issues of corruption and the need to restore transparency and trust in the government.  Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel is giving all the freshmen the $1 million homework assignment: Rep. Tim Walz (MN-01) said Mr. Emanuel told him

Start raising money now… And here’s your goal. Have $1 million in the bank by the time this race gets ready next time.

So which are they supposed to do, legislate or fundraise?  And similarly, when they’re on the campaign trail, do they talk to voters or big donors?  The answer, eight hours out of 10, is the latter.  I don’t blame them – in fact, I trust Altmire when he says he wants to take money out of the process – but I’m fed up with this system where the Jason Altmires of the world (and the Patrick Murphys and the Tim Walzs and the Jerry McNerneys) have to raise boatloads of money instead of going in there and actually cleaning up.

Luckily there’s momentum to pass this sort of fundamental campaign finance reform for Congress, led by Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. John Tierney, but it’ll still take some pushing from the rest of us.  Just putting progressive-minded folks in office isn’t the last step – it’s making sure our system doesn’t prevent them from working towards the changes that they want, that all of us – not just the deep-pocketed donors – need.

This diary has been cross posted on CommonBlog.com

This is the fourth in a series of diaries epicting the Democratic victory in this year’s midterm elections. Other diaries in this series can be seen here.

Already covered have been New England, NY, NJ, MD, and DE.

Today’s diary will focus on the Keystone state, the site of great hopes, and as today’s diary will demonstrate a great truth.  Pennsylvania really is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.  First up are the seat control charts.

2004

2006

Of  3,938,341  votes cast in 2006 US House races in Pennsylvania,   2,190,947 (55.6%) were cast for Democrats, while  1,698,641
(43.1%) were cast for Republicans.

Democrats defeated Republican incumbents in the PA-04,PA-07, PA-08, and PA-10.  

The race I enjoyed the most was the PA-10 (NE Pennsylvania), where poltical newcomer (and politcal scientist) Christopher Carney defeated incumbent Republican Don Sherwood by margin of 12,538 votes (6.1%).  The reason I am so excited by this race is because the Democratic party didn’t even run a candidate against Republicans anywhere can be taken down, we just need someone there to push.

In the PA-07 (SW Philadelphia suburbs), Democrat Joes Sestak defeated ethically challenged Republican incumbent Curt Weldon by a margin of 33,291 votes (12.7%) after revelations of suspicious dealings with Russian “businessmen”. Coming in at 56.4%, this was a 16 point improvement of the 2004 Democratic performance at 40.3%.

In the PA-08 (Bucks County, NE of Philadelphia), Democrat Patrick Murphy defeated Republican incumbent Michael Fitzgerald by a narrow margin of 1521 votes (0.6%).  Coming in at 50.3% this was a 7 point improvement over the 2004 performace at 43.3%.

In PA-04 (NW of Pittsburgh), Democrat Jason Altmire defated Republican incument Melissa Hart by a margin of 9,280 votes (3.9%).  Coming in at 51.9% this was a 16 point improvement over the 2004 performace at 35.9%.

The following map shows Democratic gains over their 2004 Democratic performance in the district (in % terms), improvements of less than 5% will be displayed in light blue, under 10% in the darker blue, and over 10% in the darkest blue.  Republican gains will be shown in the same manner, with the light red signifying a gain of less than 5% and so on. Races that were contested in eith of the years will be displayed in gray.

Looking more closely at the margin of victory in 2006 races,      Democratic defends and pickup opportunities emerge, the following map displays the margin of victory in 2006 races.  The deepest blue represents and Democratic margin of victory over 10%, the medium color represent more than 5%, while the lightest blue indicates that the Democratic candidate won by less than 5%.  Corresponding measures of Republican victory margins display progressively darker shades of red at the same intervals.

Wow.  Pennsylvania really is Philadephia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.  A really interesting take on this is would be to be to compare the margins from the US House races to the Senate race where Casey crushed Santorum. Nonetheless for House Democrats the situation in the interior of the state looks hopeless, though as the race in the PA-10 shows anything is possible.  I’m still puzzled by that one, I hope one of you Philly folks can explain what the hell happened there to me.

What emerges is a map to guide our 2008 strategy. In this series I have created a race tier system that is I will explain in the next few sentences.Tier 0 races are those where the Democratic candidate won by a margin of less than 5%, the presumption being that incumbency grants an advantage of 5-10% that with the fundraising advantage that comes with holding office should be sufficient for these candidates to defend their seats without funding from the party.  The assumption that incumbency gives a 5-10% advantage drives the classification of the pickup categories.  Tier 1 races are those where the incumbent won by less than 5% in 2006, while tier 2 races are those where Republicans won by less than 10%.  It’s really quite simple.

Tier 0

Race      D%      R%     Margin    2006 D Cand.

PA-04     51.9    48.1   3.9       Jason Altmire        
PA-08     50.3    49.7   0.6       Patrick Murphy

Tier 1

Race      D%      R%     Margin    2006 D Cand.

PA-06     49.4    50.6   1.3       Jim Gerlach

Tier 2

Race      D%      R%     Margin    2006 D Cand.

PA-15     44.1    52.8   8.7        Charles Dertinger

I’ve created chart below to keep a running total of races that I’ve classifed in each tier for 2008.

Tier 0

CT-02, NY-19, NH-1

Tier 1

CT-04, NJ-07, NY-25, NY-26, NY-29, PA-06,

Tier 2

No races meet the criteria for this tier.

States Covered

CT, MA, MD,ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT