The more I read about US politics

[Gob]

The less I seem to understand...

The battle for Pennsylvania seat

By Paul Adams
BBC News, Pennsylvania

America's election season gets into full swing today, with a series of primary contests in several states that are being observed closely a year-and-a-half after Barack Obama's victory.

But, in this corner of western Pennsylvania, beautiful but economically troubled, another legacy is at stake.

This is the land that Jack built.

Over the course of 18 consecutive terms in the US House of Representatives, the late John "Jack" Murtha devoted much of his considerable energy to bringing home the pork to Pennsylvania's 12th district.

Johnstown might have quietly died but for his efforts.

For a while, lines from Bruce Springsteen's 1980 song The River seemed to sum up the town's fortunes.

"I got a job working construction for the Johnstown company. But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy."

All that changed with Murtha.

"John Murtha was probably the most powerful individual this region ever sent into the United States Congress," says Dennis Roddy, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"His ability to secure federal funds made him the economic engine of this district for a period of ten to fifteen years."

And it's not just the local airport that bears his name, or the cancer centre, or even the highway.

The numerous defence contractors that now cluster among the hills and valleys of this rust-belt town testify to Murtha's assiduous back-room wheeling and dealing that helped to generate a new economy, some of it out of the ashes of the old steel industry.

At a time when popular anger with Washington is rife across America and already claiming the scalps of incumbents and establishment candidates in recent months, the experience of Johnstown offers a rather different perspective.

"People in regions like this don't elect a congressman to be a statesman," says Roddy.

"They elect him to be a looter. He [Murtha] was very good at it, and he never took anything for himself."

But the looting ended in February, when John Murtha died of complications after gall bladder surgery.

As voters go to the polls in a special election to replace him, they know that filling Murtha's considerable congressional boots is well-nigh impossible.

With an endorsement from Murtha's widow, his former staffer, Mark Critz, is standing as a candidate and says he'll continue to fight to bring jobs and progress to Pennsylvania's 12th district.


His opponent, Republican businessman Tim Burns, is doing his level best to cast the race in an entirely different light. Less local. More national.

"This race is really now a referendum on the Obama-Pelosi agenda," he tells me on the last day of campaigning.

"People in this district are tired of the out-of-control spending."

Burns clearly hopes that widespread voter antipathy towards Washington politicians will help to sway Tuesday's vote in his favour.

"We need to have new businesses here that are not completely supported by the government," says Dawn Burns, a Burns volunteer.

In fact, federal largesse is not the only thing keeping the area's defence contractors going. There's ample evidence that John Murtha's years of local boosting have helped to generate a self-sustaining business environment.

But Burns staffers are keen to point out that Johnstown is not necessarily typical of the entire district, which meanders crazily in an arc east and south of Pittsburgh. Not everywhere experienced Murtha's Midas touch.

And even though registered Democracts outnumber Republicans two to one, there are other factors to bear in mind.

Pennsylvania-12 has the rare distinction of being the only Congressional district that voted for the Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, in 2004, but for Republican John McCain in 2008.

Voters here are economic liberals but social conservatives, and they don't care much for their president or his agenda.

"Barack Obama is a bit too exotic for them," says Raymond Wrabley, a political scientist at the University of Pittsburgh's Johnstown campus.

The president has wisely kept out of the race, leaving it to the ever-popular Bill Clinton to fire supporters up at a rally on Sunday.

Addressing popular disenchantment head on, the former president warned the crowd to avoid making decisions based on anger or fear.

"Think about the decisions you made when you were really mad," he told Critz supporters.

"We've got to make change the friend of this district."

Change. That, in the wake of Barack Obama's election and John Murtha's death, is what local people are worried about.

Dennis Roddy says Murtha is the standard by which his successor will be judged.

"It's like being the replacement Dr Who that never caught on," he says.

"Whoever follows this guy is the consolation prize."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 688764.stm

Published: 2010/05/18 09:18:30 GMT

[Crackpot]

what don't you get?

[Gob]

This, for a start..

"People in regions like this don't elect a congressman to be a statesman," says Roddy.

"They elect him to be a looter. He [Murtha] was very good at it, and he never took anything for himself."

[Crackpot]

He's saying Murtha was elected and re-elected not for his political views but for his ability do bring in government money for his district.

And there seems to be a back handed complement in there that he brought money in to the district and not to/for himself.

[rubato]

You have to admit that a 'selfless looter' is something of an endorsement.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

It puzzled me I must admit, a backhanded compliment indeed.

So this idea of a senator as a "looter", how prevalent is it?

[Crackpot]

Depends who you talk to. One mans pork is an others necessary community stimulus.

[Gob]

Ha! Nicely put

[BoSoxGal]

You have to admit that a 'selfless looter' is something of an endorsement.

yrs,
rubato

Robin Hood, eh?